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“Oh, you must be Gwen !” exclaimed Douglas, coming for 
ward — Page 176 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


BY 

NELL SPEED 

%\ 

AUTHOR OF “the MOLLY BROWN SERIES,” “aT BOARDING SCHOOL 
WITH THE TUCKER TWINS,” “VACATION WITH THE 
TUCKER TWINS,” ETC. 


WITH FOUR HALF-TONE ILLUSTRATIONS 
BY ARTHUR O. SCOTT 


NEW YORK 

HURST & CO., Inc. 

PUBLISHERS 


Copyright, 1917, 

BY 

HURST & COMPANY, Inc. 


AUG -7 1917 


©GI.A470r)68 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER PAGE 

1. The Carters 5 

II. Power of Attorney 22 

III. Silk Stockings and Lamb Chops . 35 

IV. Gone! 53 

V. Lewis Somerville ..... 65 

VI. The Reconstruction . . ,. . 85 

VII. A Coincidence ....... 106 

VIIL Gwen .... . . . . 116 

IX. Some Letters ....... 137 

X. Off for the Mountains . . . 153 

XL The Camp 164 

XII. Hants ......... 189 

XIII. The Avenging Angel .... 199 

XIV. The Week-Enders 209 

XV. Letters from Week-End Camp . 224 

XVI. The Hike 232 

XVII. First Aid 244 

XVIII. The Diagnosis . . ... . 261 

XIX. The Quest ....... 271 

XX. The Wallet 282 

XXL Where Is Bobby? 297 


• ^ 





I* ' 




f 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

^‘Oh, you must be Gwen!” exclaimed Douglas, 

coming forward Frontispiece 

He went up the steps again, two at a time . . 55 

“Would it hurt me to walk? I can’t bear to be 

so much trouble” 258 

They were silent while the little English girl 

fumbled the lock 287 



THE CARTER GIRLS. 


CHAPTER I. 

the: carters. 

‘'I don’t believe a word of it!” 

"'But, Helen, the doctor ought to know.” 

‘'Of course he ought to know, but does he 
know.^ If doctors agreed among themselves, I’d 
have more use for them. A poor patient has 
to submit to having everything the doctors are 
interested in for the time being. A specialist 
can always find you suffering with his specialty. 
Didn’t old Dr. Davis treat Father for malaria 
because he himself, forsooth, happened to be born 
in the Dismal Swamp, got malaria into his sys- 
tem when he was a baby and never got it out? 
All his patients must have malaria, too, because 
Dr. Davis has it.” 

“Yes, Helen, that is so, but you see Father’s 

symptoms were like malaria in a way,” and Doug- 
5 


6 


THE CAETEK GIRLS 


las Carter could not help laughing at her sister, 
although she well knew that the last doctor’s di- 
agnosis of her father’s case was no laughing 
matter. 

‘‘Oh, yes, and then the next one, that bushy- 
whiskered one with his stomach pump and 
learned talk of an excess of hydrochlorics ! Of 
course he found poor dear Daddy had a stomach, 
though he had never before been aware of it. 
All the Carters are such ostriches ” 

“So we are if we blindly bury our heads in 
the sand and refuse to see that this last doctor 
is right, and ” 

“I meant ostrich stomachs and not brains.” 

“Shhh ! Here come the children ! Let’s don’t 
talk about it before them yet. They’ll have to 
know soon enough.” And Douglas, the eldest 
of the five Carters, tried to smooth her troubled 
brow and look as though she and Helen had been 
discussing the weather. 

“Know what? I’m going, too, if it’s a movie,” 
declared Lucy, a long-legged, thirteen-year-old 
girl who reminded one of nothing so much as a 


THE CARTERS 


7 


thorough-bred colt — a colt conscious of its legs 
but meaning to make use of those same legs to 
out-distance all competitors in the race to be run 
later on. 

''I don't believe it's movies," said Nan, the fif- 
teen-year-old sister, noting the serious expres- 
sion of Douglas's usually calm countenance. 
believe something has happened. Is it Bobby?" 
That was the very small brother, the joy and tor- 
ment of the whole family. 

The Carters formed stair steps with a decided 
jump off at the bottom. Douglas was eighteen; 
Helen, seventeen; Nan, fifteen; Lucy, thirteen; 
and then came a gap of seven years and Bobby, 
who had crowded the experiences of a lifetime 
into his six short years, at least the life-long ex- 
periences of any ordinary mortal. He was al- 
ways having hair-breadth escapes so nearly seri- 
ous that his family lived in momentary terror 
of each being the last. 

''No, it's not Bobby," said Douglas gravely. 
"It's Father!" 

"But nothing serious 1 Not Daddy !" exclaimed 


8 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


the two younger girls and both of them looked 
ready for tears. ''Can’t the new doctor cure 
him?” 

"Yes, he thinks he can, but it is going to be up 
to us to help,” and Douglas drew Lucy and Nan 
down on the sofa beside her while Helen stopped 
polishing her pretty pink nails and planted her- 
self on an ottoman at her feet. "All of you must 
have noticed how thin Father is getting and how 
depressed he is ” 

"Yes, yes! Not a bit like himself I” 

"Well, it wasn’t malaria, as Dr. Davis thought; 
and it wasn’t stomach trouble, as Dr. Drew 
thought; and the surgeon’s X-ray could not 
show chronic appendicitis, as Dr. Slaughter 
feared, ” 

"Feared, indeed !” sniffed Helen. "Hoped, you 
mean !” 

"But this new nerve specialist that comes 
here from Washington, so highly recommend- 
ed ” 

"If he was doing so well in Washington, why 
did he come to Richmond ?” interrupted the scorn- 


THE CARTEES 9 

ful Helen, doubtful as usual of the whole med- 
ical fraternity. 

‘'I don’t know why, honey, but if he can help 
Father, we should be glad he did come.” 

‘Tf, indeed! Another barrel of tonics and 
bushel of powders, I suppose!” 

''Not at all ! This new man. Dr. Wright, says 
'no medicine at all.’ Now this is where we come 
in.” 

"Mind, Helen, Douglas says 'come in,’ not 'butt 
in,’ ” said Lucy pertly. "You interrupt so much 
that Nan and I don’t know yet what’s the mat- 
ter with Daddy and how we are to help him.” 

"Well, who’s interrupting now? I haven’t 
said a word for half an hour at least,” said 
Helen brazenly. 

"Oh, oh, what’ll I do?” which was Carter talk 
for saying, "You are fibbing.” 

"You’re another!” 

"Girls, girls, this is not helping. It’s just be- 
ing naughty,” from the eldest. 

"Go on, Douglas, don’t mind them. Helen and 
Lucy would squabble over their crowns and harps 


10 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


in Heaven/’ said the peace-loving Nan. And 
the joke of squabbling in Heaven restored or- 
der, and Douglas was able to go on with what she 
had to tell. 

^'Dr. Wright says it is a case of nervous pros- 
tration and that a complete change is what Fa- 
ther needs and absolute rest from business. He 
thinks a sea trip of two months, and a year in 
the country are absolutely essential.” 

‘'And will that make him all the way well?” 
asked Helen. “If it does. I’ll take off my yacht- 
ing cap to this Dr. Wright as having some sense, y 
after all. I mean to have a lovely new yachting 
suit for the trip.” 

Helen was by all odds the most stylish member 
of the family, and, some thought, the beauty; 
but others preferred the more serene charm of 
Douglas, who was a decided blonde with Titian 
hair and complexion to match. Helen’s hair was 
what she scornfully termed a plain American 
brown, neither one thing nor the other, but it was 
abundant and fine and you may be sure it was 
always coiffed in the latest twist. 


THE CAETERS 


11 


Nan had soft dark curls and dreamy dark eyes 
and spoke with a drawl. She did not say much, 
but when she did speak it was usually to say 
something worth listening to. 

Lucy was as yet too coltish to classify, but she 
had a way of carrying her bobbed head with its 
shock of chestnut hair and tilting her pretty 
little pointed chin which gave her sisters to un- 
derstand that she intended to have her innings 
later on, but not so very much later on. 

''A new yachting suit! Just listen to Helen! 
Always got to be dressing up!” declared Lucy, 
ever ready for battle with the second sister. 
should think you would blush,” and, indeed, 
Helen’s face was crimson. 

‘'Oh, I did not mean to forget Father, but if 
I have to have a new suit, I just thought I would 
have it appropriate for the sea trip.” 

“I’m going to learn how to climb like a sailor,” 
from Lucy. 

“I’m going to take a chest full of poetry to 
read on the voyage,” from Nan. 

“But, girls, girls! We are not to go, — just 


12 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


Father and Mother! The way we are to help is 
to stay at home and take care of ourselves and 
Bobby. How do you think Father could get any 
rest with all of us tagging on?'’ 

‘'Not go! Douglas Carter, you are off your 
bean ! How could we get along without Mother 
and Father and how under Heaven could they 
get along without us ? What does Mother say ?" 
asked Helen. 

“She hasn’t said anything yet. The doctor is 
still with Father. Dr. Wright says Father must 
have quiet and no discussions going on around 
him. He says every one must be cheerful and 
arrangements must be made for the trip without 
saying a word to Father.” 

“Is Mother to make them?” drawled Nan, and 
everybody laughed. 

It was an excruciating joke to expect Mrs. 
Carter to make a move or take the initiative in 
anything. Her role was ever to follow the course 
of least resistance, and up to this time that course 
had led her only by pleasant places. Like some 
pretty little meadow stream she had meandered 


THE CARTERS 


13 


through life, gay and refreshing, if shallow with- 
al, making glad the hearts of many just by her 
pleasant sweetness ; but no one had expected any 
usefulness from her, so she had given none. 

Twenty years ago, fresh from the laurels of a 
brilliant winter, her debutante year in New Or- 
leans, the beautiful Miss Sevier had taken the 
White Sulphur by storm. Only one figure at one 
German had been enough to show Robert Car- 
ter that she was the only girl for him; and as 
he was the type that usually got what he started 
out to get, and also was by all odds the best look- 
ing young man at the White, besides being a 
very promising architect who had plenty of work 
waiting for him in Richmond, Annette Sevier 
naturally succumbed to his wooing, and in three 
weeks' time their engagement was announced. 
She was an exquisite girl, a Creole beauty of a 
daintiness and charm that appealed to every fibre 
of Bob Carter's being. She had been a beautiful 
girl and was still a beautiful woman; under forty, 
she looked more like the elder sister of her great 
girls than like their mother. 


14 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


‘H confess to Bobby/’ she would say, ''and may- 
be to Lucy, although her long legs make me a 
little doubtful of her being really mine — but you 
other girls, you must be changelings.” 

Robert Carter had worked hard to keep his 
dainty love in all the comforts that she needed. 
I will not say expected or demanded, — she did 
neither of those disagreeable or ungraceful 
things. Comfort and elegance were just neces- 
sary to her environment and one could no more 
accuse her of selfishness than tax a queen for 
receiving homage. 

If a dainty, elegant wife with no idea that 
money was more than something to spend takes 
hard work to keep, surely four growing girls 
with the extravagant ideas of the young persons 
of the day meant redoubled and tripled labour. 
Then there was Bobby ! It took still more money 
to furnish him with all the little white linen 
sailor suits that his doting mother considered 
necessary for him. She thought nothing of hav- 
ing two dozen made up at one time, and those 
of the purest and finest linen. Bob, Sr., looking 


THE CAETERS 


15 


over the bill for those same two dozen suits, did 
have a whimsical thought that with all that equip- 
ment it would be gratifying if just once he could 
see Bob, Jr., clean; but the only way to see Bobby 
clean was to lie in wait for him on the way from 
the bath; then and then only was he clean. 

As a rule, however, Robert Carter accepted 
the bills as part of the day’s work. If they were 
larger than usual, then he would just work a little 
harder and get more money. An inborn honor 
of debt kept him out of it. He had all the orders 
he could fill and was singularly successful in 
competitive designs. His health had always been 
perfect and his energy so great that action was 
his normal state. 

And now what was this thing that had come 
upon him? A strange lassitude that made it al- 
most impossible for him to get up in the morning, 
a heaviness of limbs and an irascibility that was 
as foreign to him as weakness. It had been go- 
ing on for several weeks and he had run the 
gamut of doctors, impatient of their failures. 
They agreed on only one thing and that was that 


16 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


he must rest. How could he rest? Weren't 
there five pairs of legs demanding silk stockings 
(even Lucy insisted that her lean shanks be 
clothed in the best) ? Suits and hats must be 
bought with each change of season for the whole 
family, shirtwaists and shoes, lingerie of the 
finest. It took four servants besides the chauf- 
feur to run their establishment. Their butcher's 
bills were only equalled by the dairy bills, their 
grocery bills by their gasoline. ‘‘Rest, indeed! 
They might as well tell Uncle Sam to rest," said 
the sick man to himself. “Who is going to pay 
for the silk stockings if I rest?" 

The doctor had come, the last one on his list of 
doctors, a young man from Washington, a nerve 
specialist. He had asked him quite seriously if 
he had had any hallucinations, seen things he 
could not quite account for, and Carter had an- 
swered somewhat grimly: “Silk stockings and 
French chops!" And the doctor, being a very 
knowing young man, had understood. 

“You see, Mr. Carter, any one in your run- 
down nervous condition is apt to brood over fan- 


THE CARTEES 


17 


cied troubles until it is not uncommon for him 
to be in a measure delirious. Now I am going 
to be quite frank with you, which is a course not 
usually pursued by nerve specialists but one I 
feel to be wisest. You have presumed on your 
strength and endurance for many years. Phys- 
ically you have stood the test, but your nerves, 
which are in a way the mind or soul of the 
muscles and organs, have at last rebelled, and 
now you are going to have to submit to inactiv- 
ity for at least a year 

year ! My God, man, you are crazy !” 

^‘Yes, a year. Would not that be better than 
going to pieces completely and living on, a use- 
less hulk? There, I thought that would make 
you sit up. Why should you not rest? What is 
eating you?'' 

Dr. Wright had a very brusque manner which 
was, indeed, in keeping with his appearance. He 
was a stalwart, broad-shouldered man, consider- 
ably under thirty. His face, rough-hewn but 
not heavy, was redeemed from plainness by the 
bluest blue eyes that were ever seen, with ex- 


18 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


ceedingly long black lashes. His teeth were good 
but his rather long upper lip did not disclose the 
fact except on the rare occasions when he 
laughed. He had more control over his mouth 
than his eyes, as his eyes laughed continually 
whether he would or no. His brows were heavy 
and shaggy and he had a trick of pulling them 
down over his eyes as though he wanted to have 
his little laugh to himself, since those eyes would 
laugh. There was no laugh in his eyes now, 
but rather a stern kindness as he slangily in- 
vited the confidence of the older man, his 
patient. 

^‘Eating me? Why, money, of course. I have 
absolutely nothing but what I earn, — and look at 
my family! They have always had everything 
I could give them and ” 

‘‘And now they must wake up and pay for their 
beds of ease,” said the physician grimly. ‘'Have 
you no property?” 

“Well, I own the house we live in; at least I 
almost own it. If a shoemaker’s children do go 
barefoot, an architect does build and own the 


THE CARTERS 


19 


house he lives in/’ and the sick man managed to 
smile. 

‘‘That’s good ! Any other property ?” 

‘T’ve a side of a mountain in Albemarle 
County. I took it for a bad debt from a country 
store-keeper — a kind of miser — but I believe I’d 
rather have the debt, as at least I had no taxes 
to pay on the debt.” 

Mr. Carter and Dr. Wright were alone during 
this conversation as Mrs. Carter had left the 
room to endeavor to compose herself. The little 
meadow brook had struck a rocky bed at last and 
its shallow waters were troubled. What was to 
become of her? Her Bob ill! Too ill to be wor- 
ried about anything! And this beetled browed 
young doctor scared her with his intent gaze; 
there was no admiration or homge in it, only a 
scarcely veiled disapproval. She felt like a poor 
little canary with a great Tom-cat peering at 
her, scorning her as too insignificant even for a 
mouth-full. And how was it her fault that she 
was so useless? Was it the canary’s fault that 
he had been born in a cage and some one took 


20 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


care of him and he had never had to do like other 
birds and grub for his living? She was just 
about as capable of doing what this Dr. Wright 
expected of her as the canary would have been 
had he told the bird to come out of his cage and 
begin not only to grub worms for himself but 
for the kind person who had always fed him and 
maybe for the family as well. 

‘‘Mrs. Carter/' said Dr. Wright, trying evi- 
dently not to be too stern as the little woman flut- 
tered back into the room, a redness about her eye- 
lids and a fresh sprinkling of oowder on her 
pretty nose, “I want your husband to give you 
power of attorney so you can transact any busi- 
ness for him that is necessary " 

“Me? Oh, Dr. Wright, not me! I can't write 
a check and don't know how to do sums at all. 
Couldn't you do it ?" 

“Douglas will do," feebly muttered the invalid. 

“Is Douglas your son?" 

“Oh, no ! She is our eldest daughter." 

“It is strange how you Virginians, with the 
most womanly women I know of anywhere, are 


THE CARTERS 21 

constantly giving them masculine names. Shall 
I ask Miss Douglas to come to you?^’ Dr. Wright 
was evidently for early action and meant to push 
his point without more ado. 

‘^Oh, Doctor, couldn't you see her first and tell 
her what it is you want? I don't quite under- 
stand." 

''Yes, Mrs. Carter, if you wish it. And now I 
must ask you to keep your husband very quiet, no 
talking, no discussions, sleep, if he can get it, and 
very nourishing food. I will write out what I 
want him to ea^'^^and will ask you to see that he 
gets it and gets it on schedule time." 

Poor little canary! The time has come for 
you to begin to grub! 


CHAPTER II. 


POWER OP ATTORNEY. 

When Dr. Wright entered the library where 
the four girls were holding their consultation, he 
thought that without doubt they made a very 
charming group. But his soul was wroth within 
him at womenkind who could let a man like the 
one he had just left upstairs slave himself almost 
into insensibility that they might be gorgeously 
clothed and delicately fed. Silk stockings and 
lamb chops ! Both very expensive luxuries ! 
Well, they would learn their lesson young, which 
was a blessing. Rump steaks and bare feet or 
maybe cotton stockings and sandals would not 
be so hard on them as on the poor little weak- 
ling upstairs with her pretty eyes already red- 
dened at the first breath of disaster. 

The library at the Carters' home was a beau- 
tiful room with not one jarring note. Low 

bookshelves built into the walls were filled with 
22 


POWEK OF ATTORNEY 


23 


books in rich bindings. Costly rugs covered the 
floors. The walls were hung with signed etch- 
ings and rare prints. Ordinarily George Wright 
would have taken great pleasure in such a room, 
but now he only looked upon it as just so much 
more evidence of the selfishness of the females 
of the Carter family and the unremitting toil of 
the male. 

He had not yet met any of the girls, but with- 
out hesitation he came forward, his step singu- 
larly light for one of his build. He spoke before 
Helen, whose back was towards the door, had 
even become aware of his presence. She gave 
a little gasp, sprang from the low ottoman, and 
faced the young physician, a spirit of antagonism 
showing from the first in her flashing eyes and 
sensitive nostrils. Helen had what Nan called 
‘'a speaking nose,’’ and every emotion was shown 
as clearly by her nose as by some persons’ eyes 
and others’ mouths. 

"T want to speak to Miss Douglas Carter; but 
since all of you are here, perhaps it might be just 
as well for me to speak to all of you.” The last 


24 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


part of his speech was made to Helen, whose at- 
titude of defiance was unmistakable. 

‘T am Douglas,'' said the elder girl, rising and 
giving her hand graciously to the young man 
whose blue eyes showed no gleam of humour now 
and whose long upper lip was pulled down so far 
and so grimly that his perfect teeth could not 
do their part towards taking from the rugged 
homeliness of his face. ^'This is Helen, this Nan, 
and this Lucy." 

The girls shook hands with him, all but Helen. 
She bowed, but as she bowed backwards, as it 
were, that is, jerked her chin up rather than 
down, it did not pass for courtesy. 

'Won't you sit down?" asked Douglas. 

'Well, yes, — I've got to talk to you girls like a 
Dutch uncle and I might just as well get down to 
it." 

"I have an engagement," said Helen icily, con- 
sulting her tiny wrist watch, "so I will be ex- 
cused." 

"What time is your engagement?" 

"Whenever I choose to keep it." 


POWER OF ATTORNEY 


25 


‘'Well, then I think you will choose to keep it 
a little later. I have one, too, but am going to 
spare a few minutes to talk about your father, 
and I think it best for all of you to be present.’' 

Douglas drew Helen down beside her. The 
girl was trembling just like a young horse who 
has felt the first spur. Robert Carter had always 
said that Helen was the best child in the world 
just so long as she had her own way. Fortu- 
nately her own way was not a very wrong way 
as a rule, but if there were a clash of wills, good- 
by to the will that was not hers. 

Who was this bushy-eyebrowed young Cali- 
ban who came there ordering her about? She 
would show him ! But in the meantime Douglas 
had an arm around her and Caliban was talking. 

“Your father is a very ill man and as his phy- 
sician I feel compelled to have a very serious 
conversation with the family.” 

“Will he die?” whispered Lucy, all pertness 
gone from her young face. 

“No, my dear, he will not die; but he may do 
worse than die unless he can be allowed to take 


26 THE CAETER GIRLS 

the rest that he should have been taking for 

years.” 

''What could be worse than death?” sobbed 
Nan. 

"Uselessness! Chronic nervous prostration! 
His nerves have lost their elasticity and nothing 
will cure him but a long rest, absolutely free from 
care. Worries of all kinds, business, financial, 
family, every kind, must be kept from him. As 
I told your mother yesterday, a sea voyage would 
be the best thing for him, a long, lazy trip. When 
one gets on the water out of sight of land he 
kind of loses his identity in the immensity of Cre- 
ation. That is what I want your father to do — 
lose his identity. Your mother must go with him 
to nurse him — he won’t need much nursing, for- 
tunately. And now you girls have got to decide 
among yourselves what is best to do. I know 
your financial affairs are none of my busi- 


"Ahem ” from Helen. 

"But I have to make your business my business 
for the time being on account of my patient. 


POWER OF ATTORNEY 


27 


Y"our father tells me he has absolutely no income 
except what he gets from his profession. You 
know that, I suppose?’' 

‘‘Why no — that is — we ” hesitated Doug- 

las. “Father never talked business with us.” 

“Um hum ! I see ! Just gave you ample allow- 
ances and let you spend ’em?” 

“We have never had allowances,” spoke 
Nan with her funny drawl. “Just made bills in- 
stead.” 

Dr. Wright flashed an amused look at the girl 
and for the first time they became aware of the 
fact that he had a very handsome set of teeth. 

“Well, now, for a year I see nothing but for 
you to manage with very little and maybe not 
that. You own this house.” 

“Of course!” from the scornful Helen. “We 
can easily keep house here while our parents are 
away.” 

“But, Helen, keep house on what?” asked 
Douglas. 

“Why, just keep house! Just go on living 


here.” 


28 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


^'But when Father stops working, there is no 
more money. Can’t you see ?” 

‘Well, then, we will have to charge.” 

“Yes, charge on, and when your father gets 
well, if he does get well, he will have an accumu- 
lation of bills to meet which will be so good for 
his health, won’t it?” The young man looked the 
scorn which he felt for Helen and addressed all 
of his remarks after that to Douglas, who lis- 
tened attentively and gratefully. She well knew 
it was no pleasant task for him to plunge into 
their financial affairs, but he explained to her 
that it was important for his patient to leave 
town immediately if the change was to come in 
time, and that left no opportunity for them to 
consult the friends and relatives who would be 
the natural ones to go to in this predicament. 

“Your mother wishes you to act in her stead 
and your father is to give you power of attorney 
so you can attend to any business for him. Can 
I trust you to get them ready, without bus- 
tle and confusion, by to-night? They can take 
the train to New York leaving here at eight. 


POWER OF ATTORNEY 


29 


They can take a boat to the Bermudas and Pan- 
ama which sails to-morrow. I will go to New 
York with them and see that they get off safely.’’ 

'^Oh, you are very kind,” murmured Douglas. 

^^Not at all! I have business in New York, 
anyhow, and I know the surgeon on that par- 
ticular boat, an old classmate of mine, and I want 
to put him on to your father’s case. But now we 
come to the part you girls are to play. It is go- 
ing to be pretty hard on you, but you are not to 
see your father before he goes. It would be ex- 
citing for him and I want him to avoid all excite- 
ment. Arrangements must be made and we must 
get him off quietly, without bustle. If he sees 
you, he will begin to question you about what you 
are going to do while he is away, and as you don’t 
know yourselves, the old habit that is as much a 
part of the whole family as fingers and toes will 
assert itself, and the burden will fall on him, as 
usual, and I can assure you I will not answer for 
the consequences if one more ounce of worry is 
put on that tired brain. I am going to bring a 
notary public so he can give you. Miss Douglas, 


30 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


power of attorney to transact any business for 
him. I am loath to bring even this matter to 
him, but that is necessary. As for what you are 
to do with yourselves after your parents leave, 
that is, of course, for you and your friends to 
decide. My province as a nerve specialist ends 
when I get my patient away, but begins again on 
his return, and if he comes back and finds debts 
waiting for him, I am pretty sure all the good of 
the voyage will be done away with. I think his 
mania is to keep out of debt. How he has man- 
aged to do it I can’t see, but he tells me the bills 
are paid up to date. I am awfully sorry for all 
of you, but I am much sorrier for that fine, un- 
selfish nature upstairs who has borne the heat of 
the burden absolutely unassisted until he has 
fallen under it.” 

''Oh, Dr. Wright! Don’t! Don’t!” wailed 
Douglas. 

"Brute !” hissed Helen, but whether she meant 
the young doctor or Helen Carter she wasn’t her- 
self quite certain. 

"Your mother ” he continued. 


POWER OF ATTORNEY 


31 


''Don’t you dare to criticise our mother!” in- 
terrupted Helen. 

"My dear young lady, I was merely going to 
remark that your mother seems to be absolutely 
necessary to the peace and happiness of your 
father, otherwise I would insist upon his going 
away alone. Often in these cases it is best for 
the patient to get entirely away from all members 
of his family, but I think she has a good effect 
on him. I must go now and get the notary public 
so you can enter into your office of vice regent. 
I’ll also make arrangements for the railroad trip 
and long-distance my friend, the surgeon on the 
steamer. Fll be back in a jiffy/’ and Dr. Wright 
smiled very kindly at Douglas, whose young 
countenance seemed to have aged years in the last 
few minutes. "I am trusting you to keep the 
house quiet and get things in readiness without 
once appealing to your father.” 

"ril do my best.” 

"That’s all any one can do,” and George 
Wright was grateful that there was one person in 
the house he could look to for sense and calm- 


32 THE CAETER GIRLS 

ness. He noted with added confidence that 
Douglas was very like her father in coloring and 
that the general shape of their features was simi- 
lar. hope they won’t manage to break her in 
two as they have him,” he said to himself. 

‘We are going to help Douglas all we can,” 
drawled Nan. 

“Indeed we are !” exclaimed Lucy. Helen said 
nothing and did not acknowledge the bow that 
included her as the young doctor made his exit 
from the room. 

Piercing shrieks came from the rear before 
the front door was reached! 

“Give it to me! Give it to me! I ain’t done 
makin’ my puddin’ an’ it’ll be mint if you don’t 
give it to me! Marmer! Marmer! Make ’em 
give it to me!” 

A door noisily opened above and a rather sharp 
call descended from the court of appeals. 

“What does he want ? Whatever it is, give it 
to him!” 

“But, Mis’ Carter, he done been in de silber 
draw’ and ’stracted de tea strainer an’ dat new 


POWER OF ATTORNEY 


33 


fangled sparrowgrass flapper an’ done took de 
bes’ fluted bum bum dish fer tow mold his mud 
pies. I done tol’ him not tow meddle in de mud 
no mo’ fo’ to-morrow as he is been washed an’ 
dressed in his las’ clean suit till de wash comes 
in. Jes’ look at him! An’ jes’ listen tow him.” 

The irate old butler, Oscar, held by the hand 
the screaming, squirming Bobby. One could 
hardly help listening to him and it was equally 
hard to help looking at him. His beauty was al- 
most unearthly: a slender little fellow of six, 
with dark brown hair that curled in spite of the 
barber’s shears, the mouth of a cherub and eyes 
that were the envy of all his sisters — great dark 
eyes that when once you looked in them you were 
forced to give up any anger you might feel for 
him and just tumble head over heels in love with 
him. That is what Dr. Wright did. He just 
fell in love with him. Enraged for a moment by 
the noise that he was trying so hard to make the 
household feel must be kept from his patient, he 
started angrily down the hall toward the angelic 
culprit with a stern : 


34 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


'^Shhh! Your father is ill! You must stop 
that racket But one look in those eyes, and he 
changed his tactics. Taking the naughty child 
by his dirty little hand, he said : ‘‘Say, Bob, how 
would you like to come out with me in my car and 
help me ? Tve a lot of work to do and need some 
one to blow my horn for me and stick out an arm 
when we turn the corners.’’ 

''Bully 1 How much wages does you give ?” 

"A milk shake if you are good, and another 
kind if you are bad! Is it a go?” 

"Sure!” And once more quiet reigned in the 
house. The upstairs door closed much more 
softly than it had opened, and Oscar cheerfully 
cleaned the silver that Bobby had left in such a 


mess. 


CHAPTER III. 


SII.K STOCKINGS AND GAME CHOPS. 

“Well! What are we to do about it?’’ queried 
Nan as the front door closed on the doctor and 
their precious torment. 

“Do ? Do what has come to us to do as quickly 
as we can. I am going to see that mother’s 
clothes are packed and father’s, too. It does 
seem strange to be looking after his things. Oh, 
girls, just think how we have always let him do it 
himself! I can’t remember even having darned 
a sock for him in all my life,” and Douglas gave 
a little sob. “This is no time for bawling, 
though, I am going to let Dr. Wright see that I 
am not just a doll baby.” 

“Dr. Wright, indeed!” sniffed Helen. “Hate- 
ful, rude thing!” 

“Why, Helen, I don’t see why you need have it 
in for him. I think he was just splendid! But 

I can’t wait to tell you what I think about him; 

35 


36 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


I must get busy/’ Douglas picked up her bur- 
den with very much her father’s look and has- 
tened off to do her young and inexperienced 
best. 

''As for saying we can’t see Father before he 
goes, it is nothing but his arbitrariness that dic- 
tates such nonsense,” stormed Helen to the two 
younger girls. "He is just constituting himself 
boss of the whole Carter family. I intend to see 
Father and let him know how much I love him. 
I’d like to know how it would help any to have 
poor dear Daddy go off without once seeing his 
girls. Hasn’t he always been seeing us and 
haven’t we always taken all our troubles to him ? 
How would we like it if he’d let us go on a trip 
and not come near to wish us hon voyage? You 
silly youngsters can be hoodwinked by this bump- 
tious young doctor if you like, but I just bet you 
he can’t control me ! I’ve a great mind to go up 
to Father’s room right this minute.” 

"If you go. I’m going, too,” from Lucy. 

''Neither one of you is going,” said Nan 
quietly. "Helen, you are acting this way just be- 


SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS 37 


cause you are ashamed of yourself. You ought 
to be ashamed. I know I am so mortified I can 
hardly hold up my head. We have been actually 
criminal in our selfishness. I don’t intend ever 
as long as I live to get a new dress or a new hat 
or a new anything, and when I do, I’m going to 
shop on the wrong side of Broad and get the very 
cheapest and plainest I can find.” 

''Nonsense ! What does this ugly young man 
know of our afifairs and what money Daddy has 
in the bank? I don’t see that he is called on to 
tell us when we shall and shan’t make bills. He 
is pretending that our own Father is crazy or 
something. Won’t answer for the consequences ! 
I reckon he won’t. Why should he be right in 
his diagnosis any more than Dr. Davis or Dr. 
Drew or Dr. Slaughter or any of the rest of 
them? Nervous prostration! Why, that is a 
woman’s disease. I bet Daddy will be good and 
mad when he finds out what this young idiot is 
giving him. How we will tease him !” 

"But Dr. Wright is not an idiot and is not ugly 
and is doing the very best he can do. Do you 


38 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


think he liked giving it to us so? Of course 
he didn’t. I could see he just hated it He 
would have let us alone except he sees we 
haven’t a ray of sense among us, except maybe 
Douglas. She showed almost human intelli- 
gence.” 

''Speak for yourself, Miss Nan. Maybe you 
haven’t any sense, but, thank you. I’ve got just 
as much as Douglas or that nasty old Dr. Wright 
or anybody else, in fact.” 

"Well, take in your sign then! You certainly 
are behaving like a nut now.” 

"And you? You think it shows sense to say 
that man is not ugly? Why, I could have done 
a better job on a face with a hatchet. He’s got a 
mug like Stony Man, that big mountain up at 
Luray that looks like a man.” 

"That’s just what I thought,” said Nan, "and 
that is what I liked about him. He looked kind 
of like a rocky cliff and his eyes were like blue 
flowers, growing kind of high up, out of reach, 
but once he smiled at me and I knew they were 
not out of reach, really. When he smiled sure 


SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS 39 
enough and showed his beautiful white teeth, 
it made me think of the sun coming out suddenly 
on the mountain clifif/' 

'Well, Nan, if you can get some poetry out of 
this extremely commonplace young man you are 
a wonder. I am going down to see about my new 
hat, so ril bid you good-by.'^ 

"If you are getting another new hat, I intend 
to have one, too V' clamored Lucy. 

"Helen,’’ said Douglas, coming back into the 
library. "Of course you are going to counter- 
mand the order for the hat that, after all, you do 
not really need.” 

"Countermand it ! Why, please ?” 

"You heard what Dr. Wright said, surely. 
You must have taken in the seriousness of this 
business.” 

"Seriousness much! I heard a very bump- 
tious young doctor holding forth on what is no 
doubt his first case, laying down the law to us as 
though he were kin to us about what we shall eat 
and wear I” 

"Helen, you astonish me ! I thought you 


40 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


thought that you loved Father more than any of 
us/' 

'^So I do! None of you could love him as 
much as I do. I love him so much that I do not 
intend to stand for this nonsense about his going 
off for months on a dirty old boat without ever 
even being allowed to hug his girls. I bet he 
won't let this creature boss him any more than I 
will. Daddy said I could have another hat just 
so I get a blue one. He doesn't think the one I 
got is becoming, either," and Helen flounced off 
up to her room. 

^'Douglas, what do you think is the matter with 
her? I have never seen Helen act like this be- 
fore," said Nan anxiously. 

'T think she is trying to shut her eyes to 
Father's condition. Helen never could stand 
anything being the matter with Father. You 
know she always did hate and despise doctors, 
too. Has ever since she was a little girl when 
they took out her tonsils. She seemed to think 
it was their fault. She will come to herself 
soon," and Douglas wiped off another one of the 


SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS 41 
tears that would keep coming no matter how hard 
she tried to hold them back. 

Indeed, Helen was a puzzle to her sisters, and 
had they met her for the first time as you, my 
readers have, no doubt they would have formed 
the same opinion of her as you must have : a self- 
ish, heartless, headstrong girl. Now Helen was 
in reality none of these terrible things, except 
headstrong. Thoughtless she was and spoiled, 
but generous to a fault, with a warm and loving 
heart. Her love for her father was intense and 
she simply would not see that he was ill. As 
Douglas said, she disliked and mistrusted all doc- 
tors. If the first and second and third were 
wrong in their diagnoses, why not the fourth? 
As for this absurd talk about money — what busi- 
ness was it of this young stranger to put his fin- 
ger in their financial pie ? 

She shut her mind up tight and refused to un- 
derstand what Dr. Wright had endeavored to ex- 
plain to them, that there was no time to call in 
consultation their old friends and relatives. Be- 
sides, he wanted no excitement for the sick man. 


42 


THE CAKTER GIRLS 


no adieux from friends, no bustle or confusion. 
He just wanted to spirit his patient away and get 
him out of sight of land as fast as possible. 

How could a perfect stranger understand her 
dear father better than she, his own daughter, 
did? Nervous prostration, indeed! Why, her 
father had nerves of steel. You could fire a pis- 
tol off right by his ear and he would not bat an 
eyelash! She worked herself up even to think- 
ing that they were doing a foolish thing to allow 
this beetle-browed young man to carry off their 
mother and father, sending them to sea in a leaky 
boat, no doubt, with some plot for their destruc- 
tion all hatched up with this ship's surgeon, this 
one time classmate. 

''To be sure, he was nice to Bobby," she said to 
herself as she sat in her room, undecided whether 
to go get the new hat in spite of Douglas or per- 
haps twist the other one around so it would be 
more becoming. "That may be part of his deep 
laid scheme — to get the confidence of the child 
and maybe kidnap him. 

"ril give in about the hat, but I'll not give in 


SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS 43 


about seeing Daddy before he goes — Dm going to 
see him right this minute and find out for myself 
just how sick he is, and if he, too, is hypnotized 
into thinking this doctor man is any good. He 
shan’t go away if he doesn’t want to. Poor little 
Mumsy is too easy and confiding.” 

So Helen settled this matter to her own satis- 
faction, convincing herself that it was really her 
duty to go see her father and unearth the machi- 
nations of this scheming Dr. Wright, who was so 
disapproving of her. That really was where the 
shoe pinched with poor Helen: his disapproval. 
She was an extremely attractive girl and was ac- 
customed to admiration and approval. Her 
youngest sister, Lucy, was about the only person 
of her acquaintance who found any real fault 
with her. Why, that young man seemed actually 
to scorn her! What reason had he to come 
pussy- footing into the library where she and her 
sisters were holding an intimate conversation, 
and all unannounced speak to them with his rau- 
cous voice so that she nearly jumped out of her 
skin? Come to think of it, though, his voice was 


44 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


not really raucous, but rather pleasant and deep. 
Anyhow, he took her at a disadvantage from the 
beginning and sneered at her and bossed her, 
and she hated him and did not trust him one 
inch. 

'‘Daddy, may I come in?’’ 

Without knocking, Helen opened her father’s 
door and ran into his room. He was lying on the 
sofa, covered with a heavy rug, although it was a 
very warm day in May. His eyes were closed 
and his countenance composed and for a moment 
the girl’s heart stopped beating — could he be 
dead? He looked so worn and gaunt. Strange 
she had not noticed it before. She had only 
thought he was getting a little thin, but she hated 
fat men, anyhow, and gloried in her father’s ath- 
letic leanness, as she put it. Most men of his 
age, forty-three, had a way of getting wide in the 
girth, but not her father. Forty-three! Why, 
this man lying there looked sixty-three ! His face 
was so gray, his mouth so drawn. 

Robert Carter opened his eyes and sighed 
wearily. 


SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS 45 


^'Who is that?’’ rather querulously. ‘'Oh, 
Helen! I must have been asleep. I dreamed I 
was out far away on the water. Just your 
mother and I, far, far away I It was rather jolly. 
Funny I was trying to add up about silk stock- 
ings and I made such a ridiculous mistake. You 
see there are five of you who wear silk stockings, 
not counting Bobby and me. I wasn’t counting 
in socks. Five persons having two legs apiece 
makes ten legs — silk stockings cost one dollar 
apiece, no, a pair — fifty cents apiece — that makes 
five dollars for ten legs. Everybody has to put 
on a new pair every day, so that makes three hun- 
dred and sixty-five pairs a year, three hundred 
and sixty-six in leap year, seven hundred and 
thirty stockings — that makes one thousand, eight 
hundred and twenty-five dollars — thirty, in leap 
year — just for stockings. Seems preposterous, 
doesn’t it ? But here was my mistake, right here 
— people don’t have to put on a new pair every 
day but just a clean pair, so I have to do my cal- 
culating all over. You can help me, honey. 
How many pairs of silk stockings does it take to 


46 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


run one of you? You just say one, and I can 
compute the rest/’ 

^'Oh, Daddy, I don’t know,” and Helen burst 
out crying. 

'Well, don’t cry about it. It seems funny for 
stockings to make any one cry. Do you know. 
I’ve been crying about them, too? It is so con- 
fusing for people to have two legs and for leap 
year to have one more day, so some years people 
have to have more — maybe not have more, but 
change them oftener. I cry out of one eye about 
stockings, and the other sheds tears about French 
chops. I feel very much worried about French 
chops. It seems they sell them by the piece and 
not by the pound as they do loin chops — ten cents 
apiece, so the bills say. We usually get a dozen 
and a half for a meal — eighteen — that’s a dozen 
and a half. Now there are seven of us and the 
four servants, that makes eleven, not quite a 
dozen. What I am worried about is that some 
of you don’t get two chops apiece. I am wonder- 
ing all the time which ones don’t eat enough. 
There is nothing at all on one little French chop, 


SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS 47 
although Fm blessed if I could make one go down 
me now. But, honey, promise me if your mother 
and I do take this trip that this young man, whose 
name has escaped me, is going to arrange for us, 
that you will find out who it is among you who 
eats only one chop and make ’em eat more. I am 
afraid it is Nan and Bobby. They are more like 
your mother, and of course fairies don’t really 
eat anything to speak of — but it must be of the 
best — always of the best. She has never known 
anything but luxury, and luxury she must have. 
What difference does it make to me? I love to 
work — but the days are too short. Take some 
off of the night then — six hours in bed is enough 
for any man. Edison says even that is too much. 
What’s that young man’s name? Well, what- 
ever it is, I like him. He should have been an 
architect — I bet his foundations would have gone 
deep enough and the authorities would never have 
condemned one of his walls as unsafe. That’s 
what they did to me, but it wasn’t my fault — 
Shockoe Creek was the trouble — creeping up like 
a thief in the night and undermining my work.” 


48 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


As Robert Carter rambled on in this weird, 
disconnected way, the tears were streaming down 
his face and Helen, crouched on the floor by his 
side, was sobbing her heart out. Could this be 
her Daddy? This broken, garrulous man with 
the gray face and tears, womanish tears, flowing 
shamelessly from his tired eyes? Dr. Wright 
was right! Their father was a very ill man and 
one more ounce of care would be too much for his 
tired brain. Had she done him harm? Maybe 
her coming in had upset his reason, but she had 
not talked, only let him ramble on. 

A car stopping at the door! The doctor and 
Bobby returning with the notary public ! What 
must she do? Here she was in her father's 
room, disobeying the stern commands of the phy- 
sician who could see with half his professional 
eye that she had harmed his patient. She had 
time to get out before the doctor could get up- 
stairs — but no! not sneak! 

‘T may be a murderess and am a selfish, head- 
strong, bad, foolish, vain, extravagant wretch, 
but I am not a sneak and I will stay right here 


SILK STOCKINGS AND LAMB CHOPS 49 


and take the ragging that I deserve — and no 
doubt will get/' remembering the lash that Dr. 
Wright had not spared. 

The doctor entered the room very quietly, 
'Tussy-footing still," said Helen to herself. He 
gave her only a casual glance, seeming to feel no 
surprise at her presence, but went immediately to 
his patient, who smiled through his tears at this 
young man in whom he was putting his faith. 

'I've been asleep, doctor, and thought I was 
out on the water. When Helen came in I awoke, 
but I was very glad for her to come in so she 
could promise me to look into a little matter of 
French chops that was worrying me. She and I 
have been having a little crying party about silk 
stockings. They seem to make her cry, too. 
Funny for me to cry. I have never cried in my 
life that I can remember, even when I got a lick- 
ing as a boy." 

"Crying is not so bad for some one who never 
has cried or had anything to cry for." Helen 
had a feeling maybe he meant it for her but he 
never looked at her. "And now, Mr. Carter, I 


50 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


have a notary public downstairs and I am going 
to ask you to sign a paper giving to your daugh- 
ter, Douglas, power of attorney in your absence. 
You get off to New York this evening and sail 
to-morrow.’’ 

'^But, Dr. Whatsyourname, I can’t leave until 
I attend to tickets and things,” feebly protested 
the nervous man. 

''Tickets bought; passage on steamer to Ber- 
muda and Panama engaged ; slow going steamer 
where you can lie on deck and loaf and loaf !” 

"Tickets bought? I have never been anywhere 
in my life where I have not had to attend to 
everything myself. It sounds like my own fu- 
neral. I reckon kind friends will step in then 
and attend to the arrangements.” 

"Well, let’s call this a wedding trip instead of 
a funeral. I will be your best man and you and 
your bride can spend your honeymoon on this 
vessel. The best man sometimes does attend to 
the tickets and in this case even decided where 
the honeymoon should be spent. I chose a South- 
ern trip because I want you to be warm. Very 


SILK STOCKINGS AKD LAMB CHOPS 51 
few persons go to Bermuda in May, but I feel 
sure you will be able to rest more if you don’t 
have to move around to keep warm.” 

''Yes, that’s fine, and Annette is from the ex- 
treme South and delights in warmth and sun- 
light. I feel sure you have done right and am 
just lying down like a baby and leaving every- 
thing to you,” and Robert Carter closed his eyes, 
smiling feebly. 

At a summons from the doctor, Douglas and 
the notary public entered the room. Helen, who 
had stayed to get the blowing up that she had ex- 
pected from Dr. Wright, not having got it, still 
stayed just because she did not know how to 
leave. No one noticed her or paid the least at- 
tention to her except the notary, who bowed per- 
functorily. 

"This is the paper. You had better read it to 
see if it is right. It gives your daughter full 
power to act in your absence.” Dr. Wright 
spoke slowly and gently and his voice never 
seemed to startle the sick man. 

"Is Miss Carter of age?” asked the notary. 


52 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


‘'Otherwise she would have some trouble in any 
legal matter that might arise/^ 

“Of age! No! I am only eighteen.” 

“I never thought of that,” said Mr. Carter. 

“Nor I, fool that I am,” muttered the young 
physician. 

“Oh, well, let me make you her guardian, or 
better still, give you power of attorney,” sug- 
gested Mr. Carter. 

“Me, oh, I never bargained for that !” The pa- 
tient feebly began to weep at this obstacle. You 
never can tell what is going to upset a nervous 
prostrate. “Well, all right. I can do it if it is 
up to me,” the doctor muttered. “Put my name 
in where we have Miss Carter's,” he said to the 
notary. “George Wright is my name.” 

“Pm so glad to know your name ; that is one of 
the things that has been worrying me,” said the 
patient, as he signed his name and the notary af- 
fixed his seal after the oaths were duly taken. 


CHAPTER IV. 
gone:! 

‘T am waiting, Dr. Wright,” said Helen, after 
the notary public had taken his departure and 
Douglas had gone to put finishing touches to the 
very rapid packing of steamer trunks, Mrs. 
Carter helping in her pathetically inefficient way. 
Helen stood at the top of the stairs to intercept 
the doctor as he left the patient’s room. 

''Waiting for what?” 

"For you to tell me you were astonished to find 
me in my father’s room when you had given ex- 
press orders that none of us were to see him.” 

"But I was not astonished.” 

"Oh, you expected to find me?” 

"I did not know whether I should find you, but 
I knew very well you would go there.” 

"So you thought I would sneak in and sneak 
out?” 

"I did not call it sneaking but I was pretty sure 
53 


54 


THE CAKTER GIRLS 


you had no confidence in me and would do your 
own sweet will. I hope you are satisfied now 
that it was best not to excite your father.’’ 

‘^But I did not excite him. He just talked in 
that terrible way himself. You are cruel to say 
I made him worse!” 

‘'But I did not say so. Certainly, however, 
you made him no better. He said himself he 
waked when you came in and you did not deny 
it. Of course, sleep is always ‘kind Nature’s 
sweet restorer.’ If you will let me pass, I will 
now go to see Miss Douglas about ordering your 
car for the train this evening. We have only 
about an hour’s time and there is still a great deal 
to do. There is the expressman now for the 
trunks.” 

“Can’t even trust me to order the chauffeur to 
have the car at the door,” cried Helen bitterly to 
herself as the doctor went past her. “I am of 
no use to any one in the whole world and I wish 
I were dead.” 

The look of agony in the girl’s face made an 
impression on the young man in spite of the 



He went up the steps again, two at a time — Page 55 





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' >• f '- ' . J .- ■ -.vil k.-*- •••. / . . 

' iT i'J* • ' ' • ' / ’ 

> \ • ••' ~ > . ’ > .4 * 


..V , 

' 4 4 i • 


' 4 4 i • 

, , N '/ ' • 




Vv'.'- j-V 





*- •» 


GONE! 


55 


strong resentment he felt toward her. He w^as 
somewhat like Helen in that he was not accus- 
tomed to disapproval, and being flouted by this 
schoolgirl was not a pleasant morsel to swallow. 
He felt sure of his diagnosis of Mr. Carter’s case, 
for, having served for several years as head as- 
sistant in a large sanitarium in New York, he 
was well acquainted with the symptoms of ner- 
vous prostration. Of course, his sending the pa- 
tient on a sea voyage instead of placing him in a 
sanitarium was somewhat of a risk, but he felt 
it was the best thing to do, reading the man’s 
character as he had. 

Helen’s scorn and doubt of him and her seem- 
ing selfishness had certainly done little to recom- 
mend her in his eyes, but gentleness and sympa- 
thy were the strongest points in George Wright’s 
make-up, and as he went by the girl he could read 
in her face agony, extreme agony and despera- 
tion. He went up the steps again, two at a time, 
and said gently : 

''Miss Helen, would you be so kind as to see 
about the car for me? Order it for 7.45. I am 


56 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


going to put them on at the downtown station and 
get them all installed in the drawing-room with 
the door shut so they need not see all the Rich- 
mond people who are sure to be taking this night 
train to New York and getting on at Elba, the 
uptown stop/' 

''Yes — and thank you." 

"By Jove," thought the young man, "that girl 
is some looker! If she had the sense of her sis- 
ter Douglas, I believe she would be pretty nice, 
too." 

Helen's whole countenance had changed. 
From the proud, scornful girl, she had turned 
again into her own self, the Helen her sisters 
knew and loved. 

"You might see that Bobby is kept kind of 
quiet, too. Tell him I will take him out with nie 
again soon and let him blow my horn and poke 
out his arm when we turn the corners, if he will 
be quiet for an hour." 

"All right," said Helen meekly, wondering at 
her own docility in so calmly being bossed by this 
person whom she still meant to despise. She inter- 


GONE! 


57 


viewed the chauffeur, ordering the car at the pro- 
posed time, and then captured Bobby, who was 
making his way to his father’s room. She in- 
veigled him into the back yard where she kept him 
in a state of bliss, having her supper out there 
with him and playing tea party to his heart’s con- 
tent, even pretending to eat his wonderful mud 
''pies an’ puddin’s.” 

It was almost time for the dread departure and 
still she kept watch over Bobby. The mother 
came out in the back yard to kiss her children 
good-by. Poor little mother ! The meadow 
brook has surely come on rocky places now. 
What effect is it to have? Perhaps the channel 
will be broadened and deepened when the shoals 
are past. Who knows ? 

Gone, at last! No one even to wave farewell, 
so implicitly did the Carter household obey the 
stern mandates of the doctor. Even the negro 
servants kept in the background while their be- 
loved master and mistress were borne away by 
the smoothly rolling car. 

"Seems mos’ lak a funeral,” sobbed Oscar, "lak 


58 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


a funeral in yellow feber times down in Mobile, 
whar I libed onct. Nobody went to them fune- 
rals fer fear er Retching sompen from de corpse. 
Saddes’ funerals ebber I seed.’’ 

The girls were sure those funerals could not 
have been any sadder than this going away of 
their parents. Once more they gathered in the 
library, as forlorn a family as one could find in 
the whole world, they were sure. Their eyes 
were red and their noses redder. Douglas had 
had the brunt of the labor in getting the packing 
done and had held out wonderfully until it was all 
over, and now she had fallen in a little heap on 
the sofa and was sobbing her soul out. 

Nan was doing her best to comfort her while 
Lucy was bawling like a baby on Helen’s shoul- 
der, truce between the two declared for the time 
being. 

'T feel just like the British would if the Rock 
of Gibraltar had turned into brown sugar and 
melted into the sea,” declared Helen, when the 
storm had blown itself out and a calmness of de- 
spair had settled down on all of them. 


GOXE ! 


59 


‘'That's just it," agreed Nan. “Father has 
always been just like Gibraltar to us. His pic- 
ture would have done just as well for the Pruden- 
tial Life Insurance ad as Gibraltar did." 

“If you could just have heard him talk as he 
did to me. Oh, girls, I feel as though I had killed 
him !" and Helen gave a dry sob that made Lucy 
put an arm around her. “I have sworn a solemn 
swear to myself : I am not going to wear a single 
silk stocking nor yet a pair of them until Father 
comes home, and not then unless he is well. I 
have some old cotton ones that I got for the 
Camp-Fire Girls' hike, the only ones I ever had 
since I can remember, and I am going to wear 
those until I can get some more. I hate 'em, too ! 
They make my toes feel like old rusty potatoes in 
a bag." 

This made the girls laugh. A laugh made 
them feel better. Maybe behind the clouds the 
sun was, after all, still shining and they would 
not have to wear rubbers and raincoats for- 
ever. 

“You remind me of the old man we saw up at 


60 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


Wytheville who had such very long whiskers, 
having sworn never to cut them off or trim them 
until the Democrats elected a President,’’ drawled 
Nan. ‘‘Those whiskers did some growing be- 
tween Cleveland’s and Wilson’s Administrations. 
You remember when Wilson was elected and he 
shaved them off, his wife made a big sofa cushion 
out of them; and the old man had become so used 
to the great weight on his chin, that now he 
was freed from it, his chin just naturally flew up 
in the air and made him look like his check rein 
was too tight.” 

“Yes, I remember,” declared Lucy; “and his 
wife said she was going to strap the cushion back 
on where his whiskers used to be if he didn’t stop 
holding his head so haughty.” Another laugh 
and the sun came out in their hearts. 

Dr. Wright had assured them that their father 
would be well. He had had many patients who 
had been in much worse condition who were now 
perfectly well. Mr. Carter’s case had been taken 
hold of in time and the doctor was trusting to his 
splendid constitution and the quiet of the ocean 


GONE! 


61 


to work wonders in him. In the meantime, it 
was necessary for the girls to begin to think 
about what they were to do. 

''I think we had better not try to come to any 
conclusion to-night,’’ said Douglas, ‘'we are all 
of us so worn out, at least I am. We will sleep 
on it and then to-morrow get together and all try 
to bring some plan and idea. There was almost 
no money left in the bank after the tickets for 
the voyage were bought and money put in Moth- 
er’s bag for incidentals.” 

“Poor little Muddy, just think of her hav- 
ing to be the purse bearer! I don’t believe she 
knows fifty cents from a quarter,” sighed 
Nan. 

“Well, Mother will have to go to school just 
like the rest of us. I fancy we only know the 
difference in size and not much about the value 
of either. Dr. Wright wrote a check for the 
amount in bank, showing from Father’s check 
book, and after he had paid for the tickets, he left 
the rest for me to put to my account. I am 
awfully mortified, but I don’t know how to de- 


62 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


posit money — and as for writing a check — I’d 
sooner write a thesis on French history. I know 
I could do it better.” 

Douglas smothered a little sigh. This was no 
time to think of self or to repine about her pri- 
vate ambitions, but somehow the thought would 
creep in that this meant good-by to college for 
her. She had planned to take examinations for 
Bryn Mawr early in June and was confident of 
passing. She had her father’s ability to stick to 
a thing until it was accomplished, and no matter 
how distasteful a subject was to her, she mas- 
tered it. This was her graduating year at 
school. Now all joy of the approaching com- 
mencement was gone. She was sorry that her 
dress was already bought, and in looking over 
the check book, she had found it was paid for, 
too. Forty dollars for one dress and that of ma- 
terial that had at the best but little wearing qual- 
ity ! Beautiful, of course, but when a family had 
been spending money as freely as this family had 
always done, what business had one of them with 
a forty dollar white dress with no wear to it when 


GONE! 


63 


the balance in the bank showed only eighty-three 
dollars and fifty-nine cents? 

A sharp ringing of the front door bell in- 
terrupted Douglas’s musings and made all of 
the sisters conscious of their red eyes and 
noses. 

''Who under Heaven ? It is nine o’clock 1” 

"Cousin Lizzie Somerville, of course. She 
always rings like the house was on fire.” 

It was Miss Elizabeth Somerville, a second 
cousin of their father. She came into the library 
in rather unseemly haste for one of her usual 
dignity. 

"Where is your father?” she demanded, with- 
out the ceremony of greeting the girls. "I must 
see him immediately. Your mother, too, of 
course, if she wants to come down, but I must see 
your father.” 

"But he is gone !” 

"Gone where? When will he return?” 

"In about two months,” said Helen coolly. 
Helen was especially gifted in tackling Cousin 
Lizzie, who was of an overbearing nature that 


64 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


needed handling. ‘'He and Mother have gone to 
Bermuda.’’ 

“Bermuda in the summer! Nonsense! Tell 
me when I can see him, as it is of the greatest im- 
portance. I should think you could see that I am 
in trouble and not stand there teasing me,” and 
since it was to be a day of tears. Cousin Lizzie 
burst out crying, too. 

“Oh, Cousin Lizzie, I am so sorry ! I did not 
mean to tease. I am not teasing. Father is ill, 
you must have noticed how knocked up he has 
been looking lately, and the doctor has taken him 
with Mother to New York. They have just 
gone, and they are to sail on a slow steamer to 
Bermuda and Panama in the morning. Please let 
us help you if we can.” 

“You help! A lot of silly girls! It is about 
my nephew Lewis !” and the poor lady wept anew. 


CHAPTER V. 


I.EWIS SOMERVII^LS:. 

“Lewis ! What on earth can be the matter with 
him?'’ chorused the girls. 

“Matter enough ! He has been shipped !” 

“Shipped ? Oh, Cousin Lizzie, you can't mean 
it!" exclaimed Douglas, drying her eyes as she 
began to realize that she was not the only miser- 
able person in the world whose ambitions had 
gone awry. 

“I am sure if he has been fired, it is from no 
fault of his own," declared Nan, who was a loyal 
soul and always insisted that her friends and rel- 
atives were in the right until absolute proof to the 
contrary was established. 

“Well, whether it was his fault or not, I am 
not prepared to say. Where there is so much 
smoke there must be some fire.' " 

The girls had to smile at this, as there was 
65 


66 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


never a time when Cousin Lizzie did not have a 
proverb ready to suit the occasion. 

‘'Yes, but the fire might not have been of his 
kindling,” insisted Nan. 

“Please tell us what the trouble is. Cousin Liz- 
zie, if you don't mind talking about it,” begged 
Douglas. “Has Lewis really left West Point for 
good? I can't believe it.” 

“The trouble is : ‘Evil communications corrupt 
good manners.' If Lewis had not been with the 
companions that he has chosen, he would not 
have gotten into this trouble. Surely Solomon 
was wise indeed when he said: ‘Whoso keepeth 
the law is a wise son, but he that is a companion 
of riotous men shameth his father.' I am glad 
my poor brother is dead and not here to witness 
his son's disgrace.” 

“Cousin Lizzie, I do not believe that Lewis has 
done anything disgraceful,” insisted Nan, speak- 
ing almost quickly for once. 

“Well, it is a disgrace in my mind for the son 
and grandson of Confederate soldiers to be dis- 
missed from a Yankee institution, whether he 


LEWIS SOMERVILLE 67 

was in fault or not. ‘As a bird that wandereth 
from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from 
his place.’ A Somerville’s place is in the South 
and it was always against my wishes that Lewis 
went to W est Point.” 

“Please tell us what the trouble is, what Lewis 
did or didn’t do at West Point,” said Helen in the 
determined voice that usually made Cousin Lizzie 
stop her proverbs long enough to give the infor- 
mation required. 

“ ‘Hazing a plebe,’ is what he said. What a 
plebe is or what hazing is I do not know, but 
whatever it is, Lewis says he was not mixed up 
in it, but he, with eight other second classmen, 
were let out. The words are his, not mine. All I 
know is that he was discharged and is at my 
house now in a state of dejection bordering on 
insanity.” 

“Poor boy! We are so sorry for him. What 
is he going to do now?” asked Douglas. 

Here was another disappointment for Douglas. 
Her cousin, Lewis Somerville, was one of the 
dearest friends she had in the world. He was 


68 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


two years her senior and had made it his business 
since they were tiny tots to protect her and look 
after her on all occasions. They had had a plan 
for the following year that now, of course, had 
fallen through. She was to have come to West 
Point from Bryn Mawr to the finals. He would 
then have been a third classman and able to make 
her have a rip-roaring time, as he had expressed 
it. 

Lewis in a state of dejection bordering on in- 
sanity! That was unbelievable. If there ever 
was a gayer, happier person than Lewis, she had 
never seen him. 

^'Do ? Goodness knows 

'Well, all I can say,” put in Nan, "is that 
Uncle Sam is a fool not to know that Lewis is a 
born soldier, and if he wants to prepare himself 
to defend his country, he should be allowed to 
do so. Oh, I don’t care what he has done — I just 
know he hasn’t done it !” 

"I’m going to ’phone him this minute and tell 
him to come around here !” and Helen jumped up 
from her seat, thereby waking Lucy, who had 


LEWIS SOMERVILLE 


69 


dropped asleep on her shoulder, worn out with 
the stress of emotion. 

‘‘If you are, so am I — whatever it is,” declared 
Lucy, rubbing her eyes, as determined as ever to 
keep up with Helen or die in the attempt. 

“Hello! is this you, Lewis?” as the connection 
was quickly made. 

“Well,” in a tired, dreary voice. “What is 
it?” 

“This is me, Lewis, Helen Carter ! We are all 
sitting up here dressed in our best waiting for 
you to come to see us. Douglas says if you don’t 
hurry she, for one, is going to bed.” 

“What’s that?” in a little brisker tone. 

“Say, Lewis, we are in an awful lot of trouble. 
You know Father is ill and has had to go away 
and we don’t know what is to become of us. We 
need your advice terribly ” 

“Be ’round in a jiify,” and so he was. 

“That was very tactful of you, Helen,” said 
Cousin Lizzie lugubriously. “You know ‘Misery 
loves company.’ ” But a peal from the front 
door bell interrupted further quotations and 


70 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


Lewis Somerville came tearing into the house in 
answer to Helen’s S. O. S. 

He did look as dejected as one of his make-up 
could. It is hard to be dejected very long when 
one is just twenty, in perfect health, with natu- 
rally high spirits and the strength to remove 
mountains tingling in the veins. A jury of 
women could not have shipped the young would- 
be soldier, and it must have taken very hard- 
hearted men, very determined on maintaining dis- 
cipline, deliberately to have cut this young fel- 
low’s career in two. Our army must be full of 
very fine young men if they can so lightly give up 
such a specimen as this Lewis Somerville. Im- 
agine a young giant of noble proportions, as erect 
as an ash sapling that has had all the needed room 
in which to grow, a head like Antinous and frank 
blue eyes that could no more have harbored a lie 
than that well-cut, honest mouth could have 
spoken one. 

'1 didn’t do it and just to let me know that you 
don’t believe I did, you have got to kiss me all 
around.” 


LEWIS SOMEEVILLE 


n 


‘‘Nonsense, Lewis ! Helen and I are too old to 
kiss you even if you are a cousin,'’ and Douglas 
got behind Cousin Lizzie. 

“Quite right, Douglas, ‘The heart of the pru- 
dent getteth knowledge.' Lewis is not such very 
close kin, besides." 

“Why, Aunt Lizzie, I did not expect you to 
desert me." 

“ ‘It is not good to eat much honey, so for men 
to search their own glory is not glory.' " 

“Well, Nan and Lucy will kiss me, anyhow. 
They believe I did not do it." 

“We are sure you are telling the truth," said 
Douglas gravely. “We do not know yet what 
they say you did." 

“They say I helped a lot of fellows tie a plebe 
to a tree and drop ice down his back, making out 
it was red hot pennies, until the fellow fainted 
from his fancied injuries. I never did it, but if 
I had, it wouldn't have been a patching on the 
things the second classmen did to me last year 
when I was a plebe, and wild horses would not 
have dragged a complaint from me. It was done 


72 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


by some men who are my chums, but I declare I 
was not with the crowd/’ 

^We know it! we know it!” from all the girls. 

‘‘But I don’t want to talk about myself — I am 
so anxious to hear what is the matter with Cousin 
Robert. Let’s let up on me and talk about your 
trouble, and if I can help, please command me.” 

“Father is very ill,” said Douglas soberly. 
“He has been working too hard for a long time 
and now his nerves have just given way and he 
has had to stop and go on a trip. Dr. Wright 
assures us that he has stopped in time and a sea 
trip and a year’s rest will completely restore him. 
It has come on us so suddenly that we have not 
had time to catch our breath even.” 

“And who is this Dr. Wright?” asked Cousin 
Lizzie. “I thought Dr. Davis was your family 
physician. Some Yankee, I’ll be bound, with all 
kinds of new notions.” 

“He is from Washington recently, but I 
believe he came originally from New York 
State.” 

“Do you mean that you let a perfect stranger 


LEWIS SOMERVILLE 


73 


pick up your parents and send them off on a jour- 
ney without consulting a soul?’’ 

''But it was important to avoid all confusion 
and discussion. Dr. Wright has been lovely 
about it all. He even got a notary public so I 
could be given power of attorney to attend to any 
business that might come up. It so happened, 
though, that my being under age was a draw- 
back and Father gave him power of attorney 
instead.” 

"Douglas Carter ! Do you mean to say that a 
strange young Yankee doctor that has only been 
living in Richmond a little while has the full 
power to sell your father out and do anything he 
chooses with his estate? Preposterous!” 

"But there isn’t any estate,” objected Douglas, 
and Helen could not help a little gleam of satis- 
faction creeping into her eyes. She was not the 
only person who felt that Dr. Wright had been, 
to say the least, presumptuous. 

"No estate! Why I thought Robert Carter 
was very well off. What has he done with his 
money, please?” 


74 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


‘We have just lived on it. We didn't know," 
sadly from Douglas. 

“I never heard of such extravagance. ‘A fool 
and his money are soon parted.' " 

“We have got just exactly eighty-three dollars 
and fifty-nine cents in the bank. Father owns 
this house and a side of a mountain in Albemarle, 
and that is all." 

“Mercy, child ! I can't believe it." 

“We have got to live somehow, and I believe 
we all feel that it would be very bad for Father 
to come back and find debts to be paid off. He 
has such a horror of debt that he has always paid 
the bills each month. What do you think we 
could do — something to make money, I mean? 
Father was in such a nervous state we could not 
consult him, and Mother, poor little Mother, of 
course she does not understand business at all." 

“Humph! I should say not! And what do 
you chits of girls know about it, either? Are you 
meaning to stay alone, all un-chaperoned, until 
this Yankee doctor thinks it is time to let your 
parents return ? Just as like as not there is noth- 


LEWIS SOMERVILLE 


75 


ing the matter with your father but a touch of 
malaria/^ 

^‘We had not thought of a chaperone, as we 
have been so miserable about Father we could not 
think of ourselves. If we are going to make a 
living, we won't need chaperones, anyhow." 

''Make a living, indeed ! You are to stay right 
here in your home and I will come stay with you, 
and you can curtail your expenses somewhat by 
dismissing one servant and giving up your car. 
Robert Carter is not the kind of man who would 
want his eighteen-year-old daughter and others 
even younger to go out into the world to make a 
living. He would rather die than have such a 
thing happen." 

"But we are not going to have him die," broke 
in Helen. "I thought just as you do. Cousin Liz- 
zie, until I saw him this afternoon and realized 
how worried he has been. We are going to do 
something and there are to be no debts awaiting 
him, either. What do you think of boarders? 
Do you think we could get any?" 

"Who on earth would board with us, here in 


76 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


Richmond? Everybody knows what a trifling 
lot we are. If we have boarders, it will have to 
be on the side of the mountain in Albemarle/’ 
said Nan, and as usual every one stopped to hear 
what she had to say. ‘‘Besides, a boarding house 
in summer shuts up shop in cities. Country 
board is the thing. Let’s rent our house fur- 
nished for a year and go to the mountains.” 

“But there are nothing but trees and rocks on 
the side of the mountain in Albemarle,” objected 
Douglas; “not a piece of a house except a log 
cabin near the top built by the sick Englishman 
who used to live there.” 

“No room for boarders in that, I know, as 
Father pointed it out to me once from the train 
when we were on our way to Wytheville. It had 
one room and maybe two. It must command a 
wonderful view. You could see it for miles and 
miles and when you get up there, there is no tell- 
ing what you can see. It would make a great 
camp — Girls! Girls! Cousin Lizzie! Lewis! All 
of you ! I’ve got a scheme ! It just came to me !” 
and Helen jumped up and ran around and hugged 


LEWIS SOMEKVILLE 


7r 

everybody, even the cousin she and Douglas had 
grown too big to kiss. 

‘‘Well, cough it up ! We are just as anxious as 
can be to share your idea, or is it so big it got 
stuck on the way,’’ laughed Lewis, accepting 
the caress as it was meant. 

“Let’s have a boarding camp, with Cousin Liz- 
zie to chaperone us! I know just lots of girls 
who would simply die to go, and Albemarle is 
close enough for week-enders to pour in on us.” 

“Hurrah! Hurrah! And I bid to be man-of- 
all work! I know rafts of fellows who would 
want to come.” 

“Yes, and let’s call it Week End Camp,” said 
Nan. “Week to be spelled W-E-A-K. What 
do you think of the plan. Cousin Lizzie? If you 
are to be chaperone, it seems to me you should 
be consulted the first thing.” 

“Don’t ask me, child. Things are moving too 
rapidly for me. We must go a little more 
slowly,” and truly the old lady did look dazed in- 
deed. “ ‘More haste, less speed,’ is a very good 
adage.” 


78 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


^‘Well, Cousin Lizzie, it does sound crazy in a 
way, but do you know, I believe we could really 
do it and do it very well,” said Douglas. con- 
sider Helen a genius to have thought of such a 
thing. I don’t think the outlay need be very 
great, and surely the living would be cheap when 
once we get there.” 

''But, my dear, at my age I could not begin to 
eat out of doors. I have not done such a thing 
since I can remember but once, and then I went 
with the United Daughters of the Confederacy 
on a picnic. The undertaker went ahead with 
chairs and tables so everything was done in de- 
cency and order. 

Nan’s "Funeral baked meats!” made them all 
laugh, even Cousin Lizzie. 

"I am going to have a short khaki suit with 
leggins coming way up,” declared Helen, who 
could not contemplate anything without seeing 
herself dressed to suit the occasion. 

"Me, too,” sleepily from Lucy, who was trying 
to keep awake long enough to find out what it all 


meant. 


LEWIS SOMERVILLE 


79 


‘'Aunt Lizzie, I wish you would consent. It 
all depends on you. You could eat in the cabin 
and sleep in the cabin and not camp out at all. 
I could go up right away and build the camp. Fd 
just love to have something to do. Bill Tinsley, 
from Charlottesville, got shipped with me and 
Tm pretty sure he’d join me. You’d like Bill, 
he’s so quaint. We are both of us great carpen- 
ters and could make a peach of a job of it. Do, 
please. Aunt Lizzie !” 

Could this be the young man who, only ten 
minutes ago, she had described as being in a state 
of dejection bordering on insanity? This enthu- 
siastic boy with his eyes dancing in joyful antici- 
pation of manual labor to be plunged into? If 
she consented to go to the mountains, thereby no 
doubt making herself very uncomfortable, she 
might save her beloved nephew from doing the 
thing that she was dreading more than all oth- 
ers, dreading it so much that she had been afraid 
to give voice to it : going to France to fight with 
the Allies. 

“Well, Lewis, if this plan means that you will 


80 


THE CAETEK GIRLS 


find occupation and happiness, I will consent. I 
can't bear to think of your being idle. 'Satan 
finds some mischief still for idle hands to do.' " 

"Oh, Cousin Lizzie, I think you are just splen- 
did!" exclaimed Helen. 

And, indeed. Miss Elizabeth Somerville was 
splendid in her way. She was offering herself 
on the altar of aunthood. It was a real sacrifice 
for her to consent to this wild plan of going to 
the mountains. She hated snakes, and while she 
did not confess that she hated Nature, she cer- 
tainly had no love for her. Her summer outings 
had meant, heretofore, comfortable hotels at the 
springs or seashore, where bridge was the rule 
and Nature the exception. The promise of being 
allowed to sleep in the cabin and even eat in it was 
not any great inducement. A log cabin, built 
and lived in and finally, no doubt, died in, by a 
sick Englishman was not very pleasant to con- 
template. Miss Lizzie was very old-fashioned in 
all her ideas with the exception of germs, and she 
was very up-to-date as to them. No modern sci- 
^entist knew more about them or believed in them 


LEWIS SOMERVILLE 


81 


more implicitly. Oh, well ! She could take along 
plenty of C. N. and sulphur candles and crude 
carbolic. That would kill the germs. She would 
find out the latest cure for snake bite, and with 
a pack of cards for solitaire perhaps she could 
drag out an existence until Robert Carter and 
Annette got home from this mad trip. All she 
hoped was that nobody would wake her up to see 
the sun rise and that she would not be called on 
to admire the moon every time there was a moon. 

“I hope we can get the daily paper,” she 
moaned feebly. ‘T hate to go too far from the 
daily paper.” 

‘‘We'll get it if I have to build a flying machine 
and fly to Richmond for it,” declared Lewis. 

“The place is not half a mile from the post 
office,” said Helen. “At least, that is the way it 
looks from the train. When can we get started? 
I don't think it is worth while to go back to school 
any more. We can all of us just stop.” 

“Oh, Helen, of course we can't! Douglas is 
going to graduate, and Lucy and I have our ex- 
ams next week. What would Father say at our 


82 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


giving up right now? You can quiturate all 
you’ve a mind to, but I intend to go on and gradu- 
ate and go to college like Douglas,” said Nan. 

'T am afraid I’ll have to give up college, but I 
am going to take my Bryn Mawr examinations 
just the same because I want Father to know I 
can stand them.” Douglas hoped sincerely that 
the tear she felt gathering would evaporate be- 
fore it dropped. 

“Give up college! Why, Douglas Carter, I 
don’t see what you mean. You have been full 
of it all winter,” exclaimed Helen. 

“But Helen, you know perfectly well there is 
no more money.” 

“Oh, I keep on forgetting!” 

“There is one thing that I have forgotten, too, 
and I feel awfully bad about it after all his kind- 
ness,” said Douglas. “That is, we must make no 
decided plans until we consult Dr. Wright.” 

“Consult Dr. Wright, indeed! I’d like to 
know what’s it to him,” said Helen wrathfully. 
“Can’t we even go on a summer trip without ask- 
ing his permission?” 


LEWIS SOMEEVILLE 


83 


‘Well, I think inasmuch as he has power of 
attorney and we can’t do anything without money 
that we shall have to consult him. He’ll be home 
to-morrow night and we can ask him immedi- 
ately. I am pretty sure he will think it a good 
thing, though.” 

“Maybe, but for goodness’ sake, don’t tell him 
it was my idea originally, as he hates me as much 
as I hate him, and if he had thought of it, I just 
know I’d never have consented or thought it a 
good plan.” 

“Well, I know one thing,” said Miss Somer- 
ville, “I am dead tired and this child here is 
asleep. We had better go to bed and get all the 
rest we can if we are going to camp out for the 
summer.” 

How different the night was from what the 
Carters had looked forward to ! Sleepless misery 
was what they had been sure would be their lot, 
and instead, they went to their beds with their 
heads full of their week-end boarding camp. 
Father was to get well on his voyage and come 
back to join them in Albemarle. Instead of find- 


84 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


ing debts piled on debts, their camp was to pay 
and he was to find his girls actually making a 
living. 

''Cotton stockings will be the appropriate 
things to wear at camp,” was the last thought 
Helen had. "I don’t see how I could spend the 
summer in town after the oath I have taken. I 
couldn’t show my face, or rather my feet, on the 
street.” 


CHAPTER VI. 


the: re:construction. 

‘^Helen, I actually slept all night.’’ 

''So did I. If any one had told me I could 
sleep a wink, I would have been furious. I wish 
we could hear from Father. You saw Cousin 
Lizzie felt just exactly as I did about that Dr. 
Wright. He may be all right and he may be all 
wrong. If he is all wrong, couldn’t he make us 
dance, though ? He could sell us out, lock, stock 
and barrel, pocket the proceeds and skidoo.” 

"Oh, Helen, how can you even give such a hor- 
rid idea a moment’s lodgement in your mind? 
Dr. Wright is as good as he looks, I am sure. 
He certainly looks kind and honest.” 

"Well, he ought to be honest he is so ugly.” 
The girls were still in bed, which they had 
shared ever since they had been promoted from 
cradles. It was Saturday morning and the day 

before had been the one of trial. 

85 


86 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


‘Tather likes him a lot and trusts him” 

* — s, I know — but then, you see 

‘‘Yes, I see he is a very fine young man who 
thought, and quite rightly, that we had been 
blindly selfish and heartless to let Father work so 
hard; and he let us know what he thought of us 
and it got your goat.’’ 

“Is that the way you are going to express your- 
self in your B. M. exams? Because if it is, you 
will win a scholarship surely.” 

“If I only could! . . . Come in!” in answer to 
a knock at the door. 

“Telegraph fer you. Miss Douglas. I hope 
an’ trus’ ’tain’t no bad news ’bout yo’ maw and 
paw,” said the housemaid, bringing in a dreaded 
yellow envelope. “Uncle Oscar, he dreamed 
’bout aigs las’ night an’ they was whole an’ en- 
tire, an’ all de dream books say dat it is a sho’ 
sign an’ symbol er trouble. De trouble is in de 
shell an’ time alone will hatch it out.” 

“Well, this is good news, Susan,” laughed 
Douglas as she quickly scanned the message: 
“ ‘Your father and mother slept well and are 


THE EECONSTRUCTION 


87 


now enjoying breakfast at Pennsylvania Sta- 
tion. Will see you this evening. George 
Wright.’ ” 

‘Well, Glory be! It can’t be Mr. Carter what 
the bad luck is layin’ fer. I ’low it is dat lo’ down 
nigger Jim, Uncle Oscar’s sister’s step-son, what 
got stuck in de lonesome ribs by a frien’ at 
meetin’ las’ Sunday with one er these here un- 
safety razors,” and Susan took herself off to give 
out in the kitchen that no doubt Jim was going 
to die, since Mr. Carter was improving. 

“Now, Helen, don’t you think Dr. Wright is 
very thoughtful? You just said you wished we 
could hear from Father.” 

“He does seem to think of lots of things. I 
couldn’t help admiring him for the way he got 
the drawing room for them and put them on the 
train at the downtown station to keep them from 
having to see so many people. That night train 
is always full of people we know and they all of 
them get on at Elba. I bet you he got his tele- 
gram in ten words, though. I know he is eco- 
nomical and would die rather than spill over. Let 


88 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


me see it. Humph! Nineteen words. I wonder 
he didn’t send it collect.” 

‘‘Oh, Helen 1 How can you be so hard on the 
poor young man ?. I believe you are just pretend- 
ing to hate him so. I am glad it is Saturday and 
no school. I think we had better go see real es- 
tate agents the first thing this morning and try 
to rent our house furnished for the summer. I 
am pretty sure Dr. Wright would approve of 
that. And also see about selling the car.” 

“Selling the car ! Why, Douglas, how on earth 
will we do without it ?” 

“Of course we must sell it. Helen Carter, I 
actually believe you think that if you give up 
wearing silk stockings for a year we can live 
on your resolution. Do you realize that the cash 
we have in bank would just about pay the chauf- 
feur and keep us in gasoline for a month ?” 

“Oh, I am such a dunce! I am afraid my be- 
ing poor has a kind of musical comedy effect in 
my mind so far. What are you going to do with 
me, Douglas ?” 

“Nothing, honey, but you must not get angry 


THE EECONSTRUCTION 89 

with me when I call you down about money. I 
feel so responsible somehow.’' 

''Angry with you ! Why, I think you are just 
splendid, and I am going to be so careful I just 
know you will never have to call me down.” 

Douglas smiled, knowing very well that 
Helen and economy were not meant to dwell to- 
gether. 

"There is only one thing I am going to make all 
of you promise, that is NOT TO CHARGE/' 
with great emphasis. 

"Oh, of course not after we get started, but 
how are we to get our outfits for the mountains ? 
Our khaki skirts and leggins and things that are 
appropriate ? And then the cotton stockings that 
I have sworn to wear until Father is well! I 
have to have a new set of them. Ugh! how I 
hate ’em !” 

"But, Helen, we have our Camp-Fire outfits 
that are thoroughly suitable for what we are go- 
ing to do. There are loads of middy blouses in 
the house, so I am sure we need buy no more of 
them. As for stockings — it seems to me you had 


90 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


better wear out what stockings you have, even if 
they are silk, before you buy any more/’ 

‘‘Never! You don’t seem to understand the 
significance of my oath. When a pilgrim of old 
swore to put on sackcloth and travel to some dis- 
tant shrine, he didn’t say he would not go to the 
expense of sackcloth since he had plenty of velvet 
suits on hand, did he now? No! He went and 
bought some sackcloth if he didn’t happen to have 
any in the house and gave his velvet suits to the 
poor or had his hand-maidens pack them up in 
frankincense and myrrh or something until he 
got back ” 

“All right! All right! But please don’t give 
away anything to the poor. If Cousin Lizzie 
should hear of your doing such a thing she would 
certainly say : ‘Charity begins at home.’ ” 

“I won’t give them away if you think I 
shouldn’t, but I’d like to put temptation out of my 
reach. I hope we can get off to the mountains 
real soon as I am sure I have no desire to flaunt 
my penance in the face of the Richmond public. 
Don’t you think, Douglas, that I might have the 


THE RECONSTRUCTION 91 

fifty-nine cents that is in the bank so things will 
balance better, and with fifty-nine cents I can get 
three pair of sixteen-and-two-third-cent stock- 
ings? ITl bring back the nine cents change/' 
Helen was quite solemn in her request, but Doug- 
las was forced to laugh at her lugubrious coun- 
tenance. 

‘‘Yes, dear, if you really feel so strongly about 
the cotton stockings. Haven't you any money 
at all in your purse? I have a little, I believe.'’ 

“Well, I never thought of that ! Sure I have !’' 
and Helen sprang out of bed, where they were 
still lolling while the above conversation was go- 
ing on, and hunted wildly in a very much mussed 
drawer for her silver mesh bag. “Hurrah ! 
Three paper dollars and a pile of chicken feed sil- 
ver! I can get cotton stockings for a centipede 
with that much money." 

It was a very pretty room that Douglas and 
Helen Carter shared. Robert Carter had 
brought to bear all the experience he had gained 
in building other persons' houses to make his own 
house perfect. It was not a very large house but 


92 


THE CARTEK GIRLS 


every detail had been thought out so not one brick 
was amiss. Convenience and Beauty were not 
sacrificed to one another but went hand in hand. 
The girls loved their room with its dainty pink 
paper and egg-shell paint. They had not been in 
the house long enough for the novelty to wear 
off, as it was only about a year old. As Douglas 
lay in her luxurious bed while Helen, being up in 
search of money, took first bath, she thought of 
the bitterness of having strangers occupy their 
room. How often she had lain in that soft, com- 
fortable nest and fancied that it must be like the 
heart of a pink rose. And the charming private 
bath-room must be given up, too. 

She could hear Helen splashing away, evi- 
dently enjoying her morning shower as she was 
singing with many trills and folderols, trying 
seemingly to hear herself above the noise of the 
running water. 

‘Toor Helen thought Douglas. ‘Tt is harder, 
somehow, for her than any of us. Lucy is young 
enough to learn the new trick of being poor very 
easily, and Nan is such a philosopher; and dear 


THE KECONSTEUCTION 93 

little Bobby won’t see the difference just so he can 
have plenty of mud to play in; and I — oh, well — I 
have got so much to do I can’t think about myself 
— I must get up and do it, too. Here I am self- 
ishly lying in bed when I know Nan and Lucy 
want to hear the news from Father just as much 
as I did.” So, slipping on a kimono, she ran into 
the room across the hall, shared by the two 
younger girls. 

They were up and almost dressed. ‘Xucy and 
I thought maybe we could help, so we hurried. I 
know you’ve lots to do,” said Nan. 

‘'That was dear of you both. Of course we 
won’t have so much to do right now, as we have 
to wait for Dr. Wright to come home; and then 
if we can rent the house furnished, we must get 
everything in order. But first listen to the good 
news !” and she read the telegram. 

"Isn’t that splendid and wasn’t it kind of Dr. 
Wright to send it to you?” 

‘T think so. If only Helen would not feel so 
unkindly to him! She utterly refuses to like 
him,” and Douglas sighed. 


94 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


'H don’t intend to like him either, then!” ex- 
claimed Lucy. ''He shan’t boss me if he isn’t 
going to boss Helen.” 

"How absurd you are,” laughed Nan. "You 
are so afraid that Helen will get something you 
don’t have that you won’t even let her have a 
private little dislike without wanting to have 
some, too. I bet if Helen got the smallpox you 
would think yourself abused if you didn’t get 
it, too.” 

"And in your heart of hearts you know you do 
like him,” said Douglas with a severity that she 
felt such silliness warranted. 

"Well, if I do — and — and — maybe I do. I’m not 
going to take anything off of him that Helen 
won’t.” 

"Well, I reckon Dr. Wright will be glad to 
wash his hands of us, anyhow,” said Nan. "I 
can’t see that it would be any sweet boon to look 
after you and Helen or any of us, for that 
matter.” 

"I should think not,” laughed Douglas; "but 
you see his having power of attorney from Father 


THE EECONSTKUCTION 


95 


makes it necessary for us to consult with him 
about some things, selling the automobile, for in- 
stance, and renting the house/’ 

''Selling the car !” wailed Lucy. "I think it is 
foolishness to do that. I’d like to know how you 
are to occupy Dan, the chauffeur, if we haven’t 
a car to keep him busy.” 

"Oh, you incorrigible girls ! Of course we will 
have to let the chauffeur go immediately; and 
I’ve got to tell the servants to-day that we can’t 
keep them. I’ll give them all a week’s warning, 
of course.” 

"I understand all that,” said Nan, "so please 
don’t bunch me in with the incorrigibles.” 

"But, Douglas, Oscar has been with us since 
long before we were born. I don’t see how you 
can have the heart to dismiss him,” and Lucy 
looked resentfully at her older sister. 

"Heart ! I haven’t the heart to let any of them 
go, but it would be a great deal more heartless to 
have them work for us with no money to pay 
them with.” 

"Now, Lucy Carter, you’ve pretty near made 


96 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


Douglas cry. You sound like a half-wit to me* 
Heartless, indeed! If you had half of Douglas’s 
heart and one-fourth of her sense, you wouldn’t 
make such remarks,” and Nan put her arms 
around Douglas. 

‘'No, she didn’t make me cry, but what does 
make me feel bad is that Lucy and Helen 
can’t even now realize the state of affairs. I 
hated to have to tell Helen she mustn’t 
charge anything more, no matter what it is she 
wants.” 

“Charge ! I should say not 1 I think I would 
walk on my uppers all the rest of my life before 
I’d put any more burden like that on Father,” de- 
clared Nan. 

“But don’t people always charge when they 
haven’t got any money? What will we do when 
we need things ?” asked Lucy. 

“Do without,” said Douglas wearily. She saw 
it was going to take more than a few hours or a 
few days to make two of her sisters realize the 
necessity for reconstruction of their lives. 
‘“Helen and I are going right after breakfast to 


THE EECONSTEUCTION 


97 


see real estate agents about getting us a tenant, 
and Helen is going to purchase some cotton stock- 
ings. She still persists in sticking to the letter of 
her oath not to wear silk stockings until Daddy 
is home and well.” 

‘‘Fm going to wear cotton stockings, too, if 

TT 1 • >> 



^^So you are, so are all of us, but we are going 


^to keep on with the ones we have until we go to 


the country. Helen is spending her own money, 
some she had, on these stockings and no one is 
buying them for her,” and Douglas went back to 
her room to dress and take up the burden of the 
day that was beginning to seem very heavy to 
her young shoulders. only Helen and Ducy 
could see without being knocked down and made 
to see,” she thought. ‘Toor Father, if he had 
only not been so unselfish how much better it 
would have been for all of us now that we have 
got to face life!” 

True to their determination, Douglas and 
Helen went to several real estate agents. None 
of them were very encouraging about renting 


98 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


during the summer months to reliable tenants, but 
all of them promised to keep an eye open for the 
young ladies. 

‘‘Your father gone oif sick?’’ asked one fa- 
therly old agent. “Well, I saw him going to 
pieces. Why, Robert Carter did the work of 
three men. Just look at the small office force he 
kept and the work he turned out! That meant 
somebody did the drudgery, and that somebody 
was the boss. What do the fellows in his office 
think of this?” 

“I — I — don’t know,” stammered Douglas. She 
couldn’t let the kind old man know that she had 
not even thought of informing the office of her 
father’s departure. How could she think of 
everything ? 

Before seeing any more agents, she and Helen 
betook themselves to their father’s office, a 
breezy apartment at the top of a great bank build- 
ing. Two young men were busily engaged on 
some architectural drawings. They stopped work 
and came eagerly forward to inquire for Mr. 
Carter. Their consternation was great on hear- 


THE EECONSTRUCTION 99 

ing of his sudden departure and their grief and 
concern very evident. 

‘We will do all we can to keep things going,” 
said the elder of the two. 

“You bet we will!” from the other, who 
had but recently been advanced from office 
boy. 

“There is a big thing Mr. Carter has been 
working on for some time, a competitive design 
for a country club in North Carolina. It is 
about done and I will do my best to finish it as I 
think he would want it, and get it off. Did he 
leave power of attorney with any one? You see, 
Mr. Carter has two accounts, in different banks, 
one, his personal account, and one, his business 
one.” 

“Yes, Dr. Wright, his physician, was given 
power of attorney. There was no time to let 
any of you know as it was important to have 
Father kept very quiet, with no excitement. Dr. 
Wright will come in to see you on Monday, I feel 
sure. He does not get back from New York un- 
til to-night.” 


100 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


''More work and responsibility for the doctor/’ 
thought Douglas. 

"More power over us than we dreamed even/’ 
was in Helen’s mind. 

"We want to rent our house, furnished, for the 
summer, giving possession immediately, or al- 
most immediately,” continued Douglas ; "perhaps 
you may hear of some one who will be inter- 
ested.” 

"I know of some one right now,” eagerly put 
in Dick, the promoted office boy. "It is a family 
who have been driven from Paris by the war. 
They have been living there for years — got ood- 
lums of money and no place to spend it now, poor 
things! They want a furnished house for six 
months with privilege of renewing the lease for 
a year.” 

"Oh, please, could you send them to me or me 
to them right off ?” 

"Yes, Miss Carter, that’s easy! If you go 
home, I’ll have the folks up there in an hour.” 

"How kind you are!” 

"Not a bit of it! I’m so glad I happened to 


THE KECONSTRUCTION 101 

know about them — and now you will be saved 
an agent’s fee.” 

‘‘How much do you think we should ask for 
our house?” said Douglas, appealing to both 
young men. 

‘Well, that house is as good a one as there is 
in Richmond for its size,” said Mr. Lane, the 
elder. ‘T know, because I helped on it. There 
is not one piece of defective material in the whole 
building. Even the nails were inspected. If it 
had been on Franklin Street, Fd say one hundred 
a month, unfurnished, with all the baths it has 
in it; but since it is not on Franklin, I believe one 
hundred, furnished, would be a fair price.” 

“Oh, wouldn’t that be fine, Douglas?” spoke 
Helen for the first time. She had been very 
quiet while these business conferences had been 
going on. “That will be a whole lot of money. 
Now we need not feel so poverty stricken.” 

“Certainly families do live on less,” and the 
young man smiled. “I think Mr. Carter usually 
takes out about six hundred a month for his 
household expenses — of course, that’s not count- 


102 


THE CARTEK GIRLS 


ing when he buys a car. I know it is none of my 
business, but I am very much interested to know 
what you young ladies are going to do with your- 
selves. If I can be of any assistance, you must 
call on me.'’ 

''Oh, weVe got the grandest scheme ! I 
thought of it myself, so I am vastly proud of it. 
We are going up to Albemarle County, where 
Father owns a tract of land right on the side of 
a mountain, and there we are going to spend the 
summer and take boarders and expect to make 
a whole lot of money." 

"Take boarders? Is there a house there? I 
understood from Mr. Carter that it was unim- 
proved property." 

"So it is. That is the beauty of it. We in- 
tend to camp and all the boarders will camp, 
too." 

The young men could not contain themselves 
but burst out laughing. They had not seen much 
of their employer's family but they well knew 
the luxurious lives they lived and their helpless- 
ness. It was funny to hear this pretty butterfly 


THE EECONSTEUCTION 103 

of a girl talking about taking boarders and mak- 
ing money at it. 

‘Ht does sound funny/’ said Douglas when the 
laugh in which she and Helen had joined sub- 
sided, ''but we are really going to do it — that is, 
I think we are,” remembering that the Power of 
Attorney had not yet been consulted and nothing 
could really be determined on until then. "I 
don’t know about our making lots of money, but 
we can certainly live much more cheaply camping 
than any other way.” 

"That’s so !” agreed Mr. Lane. "Now maybe 
this is where Dick and I can help. Camps have 
to be built and we can get up some plans for you. 
There is a book of them just issued and we can 
get a working plan for you in short order.” 

"That is splendid. We have a cousin, Lewis 
Somerville, who is home now and has nothing to 
do, and he is going up to Albemarle ahead of 
us and build the camp. I’ll tell him to come 
down and see you and you can tell him all about 
it.” 

Then the girls, with many expressions of grati- 


104 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


tude, hastened home to prepare for the poor rich 
people who had been driven from Paris and now 
had no place to spend their money. 

They stopped on Broad Street long enough for 
Helen to spend one of her precious dollars for six 
sixteen-and-two-third-cent stockings. 

‘'Do you think it would be very extravagant if 
I spent a dime in market for flowers?'^ asked 
Helen. “It would make the house look more 
cheerful and might make the poor rich people like 
it better.” 

“Why, no, I don’t think that would be very ex- 
travagant,” laughed Douglas. 

So they went over to the Sixth Street market, 
where the old colored women sit along the side- 
walk, and purchased a gay bunch of wild phlox 
for a dime. And then Helen could not resist 
squandering another nickel for a branch of dog- 
wood. They jitneyed home, another extrava- 
gance. There was no tangible reason why they 
should not have ordered out their own car for 
this business trip they had been forced to take, 
but it had seemed to both of them a little incon- 


THE KECONSTEUCTION 105 

gruous to ride in a seven-seated touring car on 
the mission they had undertaken. 

''It doesn’t gee with cotton stockings, some- 
how,” declared Helen, "to step out of a good car 
like ours. Jitneys are much more in keeping.” 

The exiles from Paris came with the faithful 
Dick; liked the house; did not mind the price, 
although furnished houses during the summer 
months are somewhat a drug in the real estate 
market; and were ready to close the bargain just 
as soon as Dr. Wright should return. 

The son, an aesthetic looking youth of seven- 
teen, who was Dick’s acquaintance, was carried 
away with the wild phlox and went into ecstasies 
over the branch of dogwood which Helen had 
placed near a Japanese print in the library. 

"Let’s take it. Mamma! It is perfect!” he ex- 
claimed as he stood enraptured by the effect. 

Helen always declared that the market flowers 
rented the house, and so they may have. 


CHAPTER VII. 


A coincide:nce:. 

'‘Almost time for Dr. Wright!’' exclaimed 
Douglas. 'T believe I heard the R. F. & P. stop 
at Elba. I do wonder what he is going to say.” 

"He is going to say we are a set of fools and 
lunatics and refuse to let us have any money to 
start the camp. Since we have been so extrava- 
gant and selfish for all these years, he’ll think we 
ought to go to the poor house, where we belong,” 
said Helen, frowning. "I can see him now look- 
ing through his eyebrows at me with the expres- 
sion of a hairy wildman in a show.” 

Dr. Wright came with good news of the trav- 
elers. He had not only seen them safely on 
board but had sailed with them, coming back with 
the pilot. He reported Mr. Carter as singularly 
calm and rested already and Mrs. Carter as mak- 
ing an excellent nurse. Evidently he was rather 
106 


A COINCIDENCE 107 

astonished that that poor lady could make herself 
useful, and Helen, detecting his astonishment, 
was immediately on the defensive; but as Dr. 
Wright was addressing his remarks principally 
to Douglas, almost ignoring her, she had no 
chance to let him know what she thought of his 
daring even to think slightingly of poor little 
Mumsy. 

have a scheme for you girls, too, if you 
won^t think I am presumptuous to be making sug- 
gestions,’’ he said, now including all four of the 
sisters. 

Of course, Douglas and Nan assured him that 
they considered it very kind of him to think of 
them at all, but Helen tossed her head and said 
nothing. Lucy waited to see what Helen would 
do and did the same thing, but she could not help 
smiling at the young doctor when he laughed out- 
right at her ridiculous mimicry of Helen. He 
flushed, however, showing he was not quite so 
callous to Helen’s scorn and distrust as he would 
have liked to appear. 

think the wisest thing for you to do would 


108 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


be to rent this house, furnished, if you can find 
a tenant ’’ 

'WeVe done it!’’ exclaimed Helen trium- 
phantly. 

‘^That is, we have got a tenant if you think it is 
best,” explained Douglas. ^‘We were going to 
do nothing without your approval.” 

^'Oh. come now! I have no jurisdiction over 
you,” laughed the young man. 

'Tsn’t power of attorney jurisdiction?” asked 
Lucy. ‘‘Nan says I can’t have any more stock- 
ings until you permit me.” 

“Well, well! I must be a terrible bugaboo to 
you 1 I don’t feel at all qualified to judge of your 
stockings, little girl, or anything else pertaining 
to the female attire. It was the merest accident 
that I was given power of attorney. I am not in 
the least an appropriate person to be having it. I 
only consented to have it wished on me when I 
saw your father was becoming excited and tired 
over the unexpected hitch when the notary spoke 
of Miss Douglas’s not being of age. I have 
transferred what cash your father has to your 


A COINCIDENCE 109 

sister’s account. I must find out from you whom 
you want to look after your affairs and consult 
that person ” 

'‘But, Dr. Wright, we would lots rather have 
you, if you don’t mind!” exclaimed Douglas. 
"Any of our kinsmen that we might call on would 
insist upon our coming to live with them or make 
us go to some stuffy boarding house or some- 
thing. They would not look at it as I believe you 
would at all. We have a scheme, too, but we 
want to hear yours first.” 

"My scheme was, as I say, first to rent your 
house, furnished, and then all of you, with some 
suitable older person and some man whom you 
can trust, go and camp out on the side of the 
mountain in Albemarle. What do you say 
to it?” The girls burst out laughing, even 
Helen. 

"Dr. Wright, this is absolutely uncanny!” ex- 
claimed Douglas. "That is exactly what we 
were planning!” 

"Only we were going you some better and were 
to have boarders,” drawled Nan. 


110 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


"'Boarders, eh, and what do you know about 
keeping boarders V laughed the doctor. 

"We know enough not to do the way we have 
been done by at summer boarding houses where 
we have been sometimes.’’ 

"Well, all I can say is that I think you are a 
pretty spunky lot. Please tell me which one of 
you thought up this plan. There must surely 
have been a current of mental telepathy flowing 
from one of you girls to me. It was you, I fancy. 
Miss Douglas.” 

"No, I am never so quick to see a way out. It 
was Helen.” 

"Yes, Helen thought of it, but I came mighty 
near doing it,” declared Lucy. "I would have 
done it all the way but I went to sleep.” 

Helen looked as though she did not at all relish 
having anything even so intangible as a current 
of mental telepathy connecting her with one 
whom she was still determined to look upon as an 
enemy. He was gazing at her with anything but 
the eyes of an enemy, however, and Nan’s re- 
mark about his eyes looking like blue flowers high 


A COINCIDENCE 


111 


Up on a cliff that you must climb to reach, came 
back to her. She felt that those flowers were in 
easy reach for her now; that all she had to do 
to make this rugged young man her friend was 
to be decently polite. But her pride was still 
hurt from his former disapproval and while his 
present attitude was much better, she still could 
not bring herself to smile at him. She was very 
quiet while the other girls unfolded their plans 
for the camp. She did not take so much pleasure 
in it now that it was not altogether her scheme. 
To think that while she was working it up this 
bumptious young doctor was doing the same 
thing ! 

‘'The keeping boarders part of it was mine, 
though,” she comforted herself by thinking. 

Dr. Wright was really astonished by the quick- 
ness with which these spoiled girls had acted and 
their eagerness to begin to be something besides 
the butterflies they had seemed. Douglas told 
him of the plans for the camp that the assistant 
in the office was to draw for them, and then 
showed him some of the advertisements of their 


112 


THE CAETEK GIRLS 


boarding camp that Nan had been working on all 
day. 

''This is sure to draw a crowd of eager week- 
enders,” he declared. "In fact, I believe you will 
have more boarders than the mountain will 
hold.” 

"I thought it best to have kind of catchy ads 
that would make people wonder what we were up 
to anyhow,” said Nan. "Now this one is sure to 
draw a crowd: 'A week-end boarding camp, 
where one can have all of the discomforts of 
camping without the responsibility.’ Here is 
another : 'Mountain air makes you hungry ! 
Come to The Week-End Camp and let us feed 
you.’ ” 

"Fine !” laughed the young man. "But please 
tell me how you plan to feed the hungry hordes 
that are sure to swarm to your camp. Do you 
know how to cook?” 

"Helen can make angel’s food and I know how 
to make mayonnaise, but sometimes it goes back 
on me,” said Nan with the whimsical air that 
always drew a smile from Dr. Wright. 


A COINCIDENCE 


113 


‘‘I can make angel's food, too," declared Lucy. 

^‘Well, angel's food and mayonnaise will be 
enough surely for hungry hordes." 

''Of course, we are going to take some servants 
with us," said Helen, breaking the vow of silence 
that she was trying to keep in Dr. Wright's pres- 
ence. "Old Oscar, our butler, and Susan, the 
housemaid, have both volunteered to go. I can 
make more things than angel's food, and, besides, 
I am going to learn how to do all kinds of things 
before we go." 

"That's so, you can make devil's food," teased 
Nan. "Somehow I didn't like to mention it." 

"Cook is going to teach me to make all kinds 
of things. I am going to get dinner to-morrow 
and have already made up bread for breakfast. 
I am going to buy some of the cutest little bunga- 
low aprons to cook in, pink and blue. I saw 
them down town this morning. They are what 
made me think of learning how to cook." 

"I'm going to learn how to cook, too, and I 
must have some aprons just like Helen's." 

"All of us are Camp Fire Girls," said Douglas 


114 


THE CAETEK GIRLS 


to the doctor, ''and of course we have learned 
some of the camping stunts, but we have not been 
as faithful as we might have been/’ 

"I am an old camper and can put you on to 
many things if you will let me.” 

"We should be only too glad,” responded 
Douglas sincerely. 

"One of the first things is canvas cots. Don’t 
try to sleep on all kinds of contrived beds. Get 
folding cots and insure comfortable nights. An- 
other is, don’t depend altogether on camp fires 
for cooking. Kerosene stoves and fireless cook- 
ers come in mighty handy for steady meal get- 
ting. It will be another month at least before 
you go, won’t it?” 

"Just about, I think, if we can manage it. We 
have school to finish and I have some college 
exams that I want to take, although I see no pros- 
pect of college yet. Another thing I want to dis- 
cuss with you. Dr. Wright, is selling our car. I 
think that might bring in money enough for us to 
pay for all the camp fixtures and run us for 
awhile.” 


A COINCIDENCE 


115 


''Certainly; Til see about that for you imme- 
diately/’ 

The young man took his departure with a 
much higher opinion of the Carter sisters than 
he had held twenty-four hours before. As for 
the Carter sisters: they felt so grateful to him 
for his kindness to their parents and to them that 
their opinion of him was perforce good. Helen 
still sniffed disdainfully when his name was men- 
tioned, but she could not forget the expression of 
approval in his blue eyes when he found that the 
camping scheme was hers. 


CHAPTER VIIL 


GWEN. 

Bill Tinsley was as keen on the camp building 
plan as Lewis Somerville had said he would be. 

‘'Sleeping on my arms/" was his telegram in 
answer to the letter he got from Lewis, a letter 
with R. S. V. P. P. D. Q. plainly marked on the 
envelope. 

“Good old Bill ! I almost knew he would tum- 
ble at the chance. All of you will like Bill, I 
know."" 

“What does he mean by sleeping on his arms ?"" 
asked Lucy. “I should think it would make him 
awfully stiff."" 

“Oh, that means ready to go at a moment"s 
notice. I bet his kit is packed now."" 

Mr. Lane and Dick had worked hard on the 

plans for the camp and had them ready when the 

would-be builder called for them. Then Mr. 

Lane and Lewis made a flying trip to Greendale 
116 


GWEN 


117 


to look into the lay of the land and to decide on 
a site for the dining pavilion. It was a spot 
about one hundred yards from the log cabin, 
built by the aforesaid sick Englishman, that 
seemed to them to be intended for just their pur- 
pose. It was a hollowed out place in the moun- 
tain side, not far from the summit, and four 
great pine trees formed an almost perfect rec- 
tangle of forty by twenty-five feet. In the cen- 
tre stood a noble tulip poplar. 

‘Tity to sacrifice him,’’ said Bill Tinsley, 
whom they had picked up at Charlottesville on 
their way to Greendale. Bill was a youth of few 
words but of frequent mirth expressed in uncon- 
trollable fits of laughter that nothing could stop, 
not even being shipped from West Point. It was 
this very laugh that had betrayed the hazers. If 
Bill had only been able to hold in that gufifaw of 
his they would never have been caught. His 
laugh was unmistakable and through it the whole 
crowd of wrongdoers was nabbed, poor Lewis 
along with them although he was innocent. 

‘'No more to blame for laughing than a light- 


118 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


ning bug for shining,” he had declared to Lewis ; 
“but I wish I had died before I got you into this, 
old fellow.” 

“Well, it can't be helped, but I bet you will be 
laughing on the other side of your face before 
you know it.” 

The youths had remained fast friends and now 
that this chance had come for them to be of ser- 
vice and to use the surplus energy that was 
stored up in their splendidly developed muscles, 
they were happy at the prospect of being to- 
gether again. 

Mr. Lane took careful measurements and 
adapted his plans so as to utilize the four trees as 
natural posts and the great tulip poplar as a sup- 
port for the roof. Under the pavilion the space 
was to be made into kitchen and store room. 
Some little excavating would be necessary for 
this as measurements showed that one edge of the' 
pavilion would rest almost on the mountain side 
while the other stood ten feet from the ground. 

“I am trying to spare you fellows all the ex- 
cavating possible, as that is the tedious and un- 


GWEN 


119 


interesting part of building/’ explained Mr. 
Lane. 

‘'Oh, we can shovel that little pile of dirt away 
in no time,” declared Lewis, feeling his muscles 
twitch with joy at the prospect of removing 
mountains. Mr. Lane smiled, knowing full well 
that it was at least no mole hill they were to 
tackle. 

Within a week after Mr. and Mrs. Carter had 
sailed on their health-seeking voyage, Lewis and 
his chum were en route for Greendale, all of the 
lumber for their undertaking ordered and their 
tools sent on ahead by freight. Bill had gone to 
Richmond, ostensibly to consult a dentist, but in 
reality to see the Carter girls, who had aroused 
in him a great curiosity. 

“They must be some girls,” had been his laconic 
remark. 

“So they are, the very best fun you ever saw,” 
Lewis had assured him. “They took this thing 
of waking up and finding themselves poor a 
great deal better than you and I did waking 
up and finding ourselves nothing but civilians 


120 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


when we had expected to be major generals, at 
least/’ 

The Carter girls had one and all liked Bill, 
when Lewis took him to call on them the evening 
of his arrival in Richmond. 

‘^There is something so frank and open in his 
countenance,” said Helen. 

'^His mouth!” drawled Nan. ‘‘Did you ever 
see or hear such a laugh ?” 

“He is a great deal nicer than your old Dr. 
Wright, who looks as though it would take an 
operation on his risibles to get a laugh out of 
him.” 

Bill had offered the services of a battered Ford 
car he had in Charlottesville as pack mule for the 
camp and it was joyfully accepted. He and 
Lewis stopped in Charlottesville on their way to 
Greendale and got the tried old car, making the 
last leg of their trip in it. 

They had decided to sleep in the Englishman’s 
cabin, as the little log house that went with the 
property was always called, but Miss Somerville 
had made them promise to burn sulphur candles 


GWEN 


121 


before they went in and was deeply grieved be- 
cause her beloved nephew refused to carry with 
him a quart bottle of crude carbolic acid that she 
felt was necessary to ward off germs. 

It was late in the afternoon as the faithful 
Ford chugged its way up the mountain road to 
the site of the proposed camp. The boys had 
stopped at the station at Greendale and taken in 
all the tools they could stow away, determined to 
begin work at excavating the first thing in the 
morning. 

'Xef s lay out the ground this afternoon,’’ pro- 
posed Lewis. 

‘‘There’s nothing to lay out since the four pine 
trees mark the corners. I, for one, am going to 
lay out myself and rest and try to decide which 
one of your cousins is the most beautiful.” 

“Douglas, of course! The others can’t hold a 
candle to her, although Helen is some looker and 
Nan has certainly got something about her that 
makes a fellow kind of blink. And that Lucy is 
going to grow up to her long legs some day and 
maybe step ahead of all of them.” 


122 THE CARTEE GIRLS 

^Well, Fm mighty glad you thought about giv- 
ing me this job of working for such nice gals/’ 
These young men always spoke of themselves as 
being in the employ of the Carter girls, and all 
the time they were building the camp they reli- 
giously kept themselves to certain hours as 
though any laxity would be cheating their bosses. 
Besides, the regular habits that two years at 
West Point had drilled into them would have 
been difficult to break. 

‘T don’t know how to loaf,” complained Lewis. 
^^That’s the dickens of it.” 

‘‘Me, neither!” 

“They say the Government makes machines of 
its men.” 

“True ! I am a perpetual motion machine.” 

They were busily engaged on their first morn- 
ing in the mountains, plying pick and shovel. 
They bent their brave young shoulders to the 
task with evident enjoyment in the work. When 
they did straighten up to get the kinks out of 
their backs, they looked out across a wonderful 
country which they fully appreciated as being 


GWEN 


123 


wonderful, but raving about landscapes and Na- 
ture was not in their line and they would quickly 
bend again to the task in a somewhat shamefaced 
way. 

The orchards of Albemarle County in Vir- 
ginia are noted and the green of an apple tree in 
May is something no one need be ashamed to ad- 
mire openly, but all these boys would say on the 
subject was: 

‘'Good apple year, I hope.’’ 

"Yep! Albemarle pippins are sho’ good eats.” 

Moving mountains was not quite so easy as 
they had expected it to be. They remembered 
what Mr. Lane had said about excavating when 
the sun showed it to be high noon and after 
five hours’ steady work they had made but 
little impression on the pile they were to dig 
away. 

"Gee, we make no impression at all!” said 
Lewis. "I verily believe little Bobby Carter 
could have done as much as we have if he had 
been turned loose to play mud pies here.” 

"Well, let’s stop and eat. I haven’t laughed 


124 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


for an hour/' and Bill gave out one of his guf- 
faws that echoed from peak to peak and started 
two rabbits out of the bushes and actually dis- 
lodged a great stone that went rolling down the 
side of the mountain into an abyss below. At 
least, his laugh seemed to be the cause but Bill 
declared it was somebody or something, and to 
be sure a little mountain boy came from behind 
a boulder, grinning from ear to ear. 

‘What be you uns a-doin' ?" 

“Crocheting a shawl for Aunty," said Lewis 
solemnly. 

“Well, we uns is got a mule an' a scoop that 
could make a shawl fer Aunty quicker'n you 
uns." This brought forth another mighty peal 
from Bill and another stone rolled down the 
mountain side. 

“Good for you, son !" exclaimed Lewis. “Sup- 
pose you fetch the mule here this afternoon and 
we'll have a sewing bee. What do you say. Bill ? 
Do you believe we would ever in the world get 
this dirt moved?" 

“Doubt it." 


GWEN 


125 


‘'Do you uns want we uns to drive the critter? 
We uns mostly goes along 'thout no axtra 
chawge/" 

“Sure we want you. What do you charge for 
the mule and driver?'' 

“Wal, time was when Josephus brought as 
much as fifty cents a day, but he ain’t to say so 
spry as onct, an’ now we uns will be satisfied to 
git thirty cents, with a feedin’ of oats.” 

“Oats! Who has oats? Not I. The only 
critter we have eats gasoline. I tell you, son, you 
feed Josephus yourself and we will feed you and 
pay you fifty cents a day for your animal. I 
don’t believe a mule could work for thirty cents 
and keep his self-respect.” 

“Wal, Josephus an’ we uns don’t want no 
money what we uns don’ arn,” and the little 
mountain boy flushed a dark red under his sun- 
burned, freckled face. 

He was a very ragged youngster of about 
twelve. His clothes smacked of the soil to such 
an extent that you could never have told what 
was their original color. What sleeves there 


126 THE CARTEK GIRLS 

were left in his shirt certainly must once have 
been blue, but the body of that garment showed 
spots of candy pink calico, the kind you are sure 
to find on the shelves of any country store. His 
trousers, held up by twine, crossed over his wiry 
shoulders, were corduroy. They had originally 
been the color of the earth and time and weather 
had but deepened their tone. His eyes shone out 
very clear and blue in contrast to the general din- 
giness of his attire. His was certainly a very 
likable face and the young men were very much 
attracted to the boy, first because of his ready 
wit, shown from his first words, and then be- 
cause of his quick resentment at the possibility of 
any one’s giving him or his mule money they had 
not earned. 

''Of course, you are going to earn it,” reas- 
sured Lewis. "Now you go home and get your 
mule and as soon as we can cook some dinner for 
ourselves and satisfy our inner cravings, we will 
all get to work. You and Josephus can dig and 
Bill and I will begin to build.” 

"Please, sir, wouldn’t you uns like Gwen to 


GWEN 


127 


cook for you uns and wash the platters an’ sich? 
She is a great han’ at fixin’s.” 

‘'Gwen! Who is Gwen?” 

Another stone slipped from behind the boulder 
from which the boy had emerged and then a 
young girl came timidly forth. 

“I am Gwen,” she said simply. 

She was a girl of about fourteen, very slim and 
straight, with wide grey eyes that looked very 
frankly into those of the young men, although 
you felt a timidity in spite of her directness. 
Her scant blue dress was clean and whole and 
her brown hair was parted and braided in two 
long plaits, showing much care and brushing. 

“Oh, how do you do. Miss Gwen? I am Lewis 
Somerville and this is my friend and fellow la- 
borer, Mr. William Tinsley.” 

The girl made a little old-fashioned courtesy 
with a quaint grace that charmed the laborers. 

“Do you want me to cook and clean for 
you?” 

“Of course we do! What can you cook?” 

“I have learned to cook some very good dishes 


128 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


at the Mountain Mission School. Maybe you 
would not like them, though/’ 

‘'Of course we would like them! When can 
you start?” 

“When you wish I” 

“Well, I wish now,” put in Bill. “I never 
tasted meaner coffee than you made last night 
except what I made myself this morning, and as 
for your method of broiling bacon — rotten — 
rotten !” 

The girl followed Lewis to the Englishman’s 
cabin and after being shown the provisions, she 
said she thought she could manage to get dinner 
without his assistance. He showed her how to 
light the hard alcohol stove which was part of 
their outfit and then gave her carte blanche with 
the canned goods and groceries. 

Gwen shook her head in disapproval at sight 
of the pile of dirty dishes left from breakfast. 
It would take more than West Point training to 
make men wash dishes as soon as a meal is over. 
Lewis and Bill had a method of their own and 
never washed a plate until both sides had been 


GWEN 


129 


eaten from, and not then until they were needed 
immediately. Supper had been eaten from the 
top side; breakfast, from the bottom. There 
were still some clean plates 'in the hamper, so 
why wash those yet? 

In an incredibly short time Gwen called the 
young men to dinner. They lay stretched at their 
ease on a grassy slope near the cabin, quite 
pleased with themselves and their luck in having 
found a mule to move the dirt and a girl to cook 
their food all in one morning. 

"What do you make of her?’’ asked Lewis. 
""She doesn’t talk or walk like a mountain girl.” 

""Mission School !” commented Bill, looking at 
the slim, erect back of the girl as she went up the 
hill to the spring. She had refused their offer 
of help and said she wanted to get the water her- 
I self. 

""I don’t believe Mission School would have her 
walking that way. Don’t you fancy the boy goes 
to school, too? Look how he slouches.” 

Just then the boy, whose name was Josh, ap- 
peared, leading Josephus. Surely there never 


130 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


was such a specimen of horse flesh as that mule. 
Maud in the comic supplement was beautiful 
compared to him. His legs had great lumps on 
them and he was forced to walk with his feet 
quite far apart to keep from interfering. He 
was sway backed and spavined and blind in one 
eye, but there was a kindly expression in his re- 
maining eye that reassured one. One fore leg 
was shorter than the other, which gave him a 
leaning, tumbling look that seemed to threaten 
to upset his equilibrium at every step. 

''Well, God bless my soul!’’ exclaimed Lewis. 
"Is that Josephus?” 

"Yes, sir! He ain’t so measly as he looks. 
He kin do a sight of scrapin’ an’ dumpin’,” and 
the boy reached an affectionate arm up around 
the old animal’s neck. Josephus responded by 
snorting in his master’s ear. "We uns done 
brought the implee-ment to make Aunty’s 
shawl,” pointing to a rusty old road shovel that 
Josephus had hitched to him. 

"Good ! as soon as Miss Gwen feeds us, we will 
see what he can do in the way of fancy work.” 


GWEN 


131 


Gwen was a born cook and the domestic sci- 
ence that had been so ably taught in the Mission 
School had developed her talent wonderfully. 
She had turned up two empty boxes and 
smoothed some wrapping paper over them. A 
bunch of mountain laurel glorified an old soup 
can and made a beautiful centre piece. The cof- 
fee was hot and clear and strong; the hoecake 
brown and crisp on the outside and soft and 
creamy within, just as a hoecake should be; the 
bacon vied with the hoecake in crispness, with no 
pieces limp and none burned. She had opened 
a can of baked beans and another of spaghetti, 
carefully following the directions on the cans 
as how to serve the contents. 

‘'Well, don’t this beat all?” said Bill as he 
sank down by the improvised table. 

“But you must come and eat with us, you and 
Josh,” insisted Lewis. 

“Oh, no, the table isn’t big enough, and, be- 
sides, I must go on baking hoecakes.” 

“Well, Josh, you come, anyhow.” 

“No, sir, thanky ! We uns will wait for Gwen. 


132 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


We uns ain’t fitten to sit down with the likes of 
you uns, all dirty with we uns’ meat a-stickin’ 
through the rags.” 

‘"Nonsense!” exclaimed Lewis, “if you are fit 
to sit with Miss Gwen, you are fit to sit with us. 
We don’t mind your meat sticking through, and 
as for being dirty — why don’t you wash?” 

Gwen gave a laugh of delight. “There now. 
Josh, what do I tell you all the time? Rags don’t 
make a bit of difference if you are just clean.” 

“Wal, we uns’ll eat with Josephus if we uns 
has to wash. This ain’t no time of the week for 
washin’.” But while the young men were en- 
joying the very appetizing food. Josh did sneak 
off to the stream and came back with his face and 
hands several shades fairer. 

That afternoon was a busy one for all on that 
mountain side. Gwen gave the cabin a thorough 
cleaning, washed all the dishes and put papers 
on the shelves that were already in the cabin, un- 
packed the provisions and placed them with the 
dishes neatly on the shelves and in the old cup- 
board that still stood in the corner, left there by 


GWEN 


133 


the Englishman. She went back to her home for 
yeast and made up a sponge, planning to have hot 
rolls for breakfast. 

Josephus showed the mettle of his pasture by 
scraping and dumping about three times as much 
dirt in an hour as the two West Pointers had 
been able to move in a whole morning's work. 
Josh did very spirited driving, pretending all the 
time that his steed had to be handled very care- 
fully or he would run away, road-shovel and all. 

“How did your mule happen to have one leg 
shorter than the other?" teased Lewis. 

“Wal, that's a mounting leg. He got that 
walkin' round the mounting. All critters in the 
mountings is built that a way. Ain't you an' 
Mr. Bill there a-planning that there buildin' after 
we unses' mule, with short legs up the hill an' long 
legs down?" 

Bill almost fell out of the poplar tree where he 
had climbed to saw off limbs for twenty feet or 
more. He laughed so loud and long at the way 
Josh had gotten ahead of his friend in repartee 
that Gwen came out of the cabin to see what was 


134 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


the matter. Bill’s laugh was a very disconcert- 
ing thing until you got used to him. 

That first day showed much accomplished. 
The excavating was half done; the post holes 
were dug and logs cut and trimmed and planted 
ready for the beams. A load of lumber arrived 
before sundown and that meant no delay in the 
to-morrow’s work. 

Six o’clock found them very tired and hungry 
but Gwen had supper all ready for them, a great 
dish of scrambled eggs and flannel cakes. She 
had brought from home a pitcher of milk 
that stayed delightfully cool in the mountain 
spring. 

“There’ll be buttermilk to-morrow,” she said, 
blushing with pleasure at the praise the young 
men bestowed on her culinary efforts. 

“Splendid and more splendid !” exclaimed 
Lewis. “And will you and your brother just 
come every day and take care of us?” 

“You mean Josh? He is not my brother.” 

“Oh, cousin, then ?” 

“No, he is no relation to me. I live with his 


GWEN 


135 


mother, though, Aunt Mandy. I have lived with 
her for five years. I am very fond of Josh, but 
if he were my brother, Fd simply make him take 
baths.’' 

‘'Can’t you anyhow as it is?” 

“No,” sadly. “He thinks it is foolishness. 
Teacher has told him time and time again and 
even sent him home, five miles across the moun- 
tains, but he won’t wash for her or for me. 
Aunt Mandy thinks it is foolishness, too, but 
she makes him bathe oftener than he used to in 
summer.” 

“Boys will be boys and it is hard to make them 
anything else. I remember the time well when 
bathing was something that I thought grown-ups 
wished on me just for spite, and now a cold 
shower every morning is as necessary to my hap- 
piness as dirt used to be when I was a kid. Bill 
and I are going to pipe from the spring up there 
and concoct a shower somehow under the 
pavilion.” 

“That will be glorious. Father always meant 
to use that spring and get a shower at the cabin.” 


136 THE CAETER GIRLS 

^'^Your father!’’ 

‘'Yes, my father was the man who built the 
Englishman’s cabin. He died five years ago.” 
“Gee whilikins! Now I understand!” 


CHAPTER IX. 


soMK i,e:tte:rs. 

From Lewis Somerville to Douglas Carter. 

Greendale, Va., May — , 19 — . 

Dear Douglas: 

Bill and I are coming on finely. Already the 
noble palace is rearing its head. WeVe got the 
posts planted and the uprights and rafters in 
place and will begin on the roof to-morrow. Bill 
is a perfect glutton for work. Speaking of glut- 
tons — weVe got a cook. A perfect gem of a 
cook who has been born and bred at Lonesome- 
hurst and doesn’t mind the country. We are go- 
ing to hang on to her like grim Death to a dead 
nigger. 

The funny thing about her is she is a real lady. 
I spotted it from the beginning from a certain 
way she had with her. She is only fourteen and 
her father, who, by the way, was the Englishman 
who built this cabin and used to own the side of 
the mountain, has been dead five years; but be- 
fore he died this child evidently learned to eat 
with a fork and to take a daily bath and to keep 
her hair smooth. She handles the King’s Eng- 
lish with the same respect and grace she does a 
fork, and her speech is very marked because of 
the contrast between it and the we uns and you 
uns and you allses of the ordinary mountaineer. 

137 


138 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


She has lived ever since her father’s death with 
Aunt Mandy, a regular old mountain character 
who looks as though she might have stepped out 
of one of John Fox’s books. She is the same 
back and front, concave both ways — slightly 
more convex in the back than the front. She 
stands a good six feet in her stocking feet (al- 
though I doubt her ever having on a pair). I 
have never seen her without a snuff stick in her 
mouth except once and then she had a corn-cob 
pipe. She is as sharp as a tack and woe be to 
the one who engages her in a contest of wit. 

Josh is her son and Josephus her mule. Mr. 
Mandy is dead, and Aunt Mandy and Josh, who 
is twelve, I think, have scratched a living out of 
their ^^arin’ ” with the help of Josephus, who is 
as much of a character as Aunt Mandy and Josh. 

When the Englishman died. Aunt Mandy took 
the little orphan Gwendolin to her house, never 
dreaming that there was anything for her to do 
but take her. She has been as good as gold to 
the girl and shared her corn pone and drippings 
with a heart of charity. Gwen is surely making 
up to her now for all her kindness as she does 
all the housework for her foster mother and all 
kinds of sewing and knitting, which she sells to 
the summer boarders down at the hotel at Green- 
dale. I am crazy to engage Gwen and Josh for 
you girls but am afraid of butting in on your 
arrangements. 

Josh is delicious. He did not learn to wash 
from an English father nor to handle a fork, nor 
yet to speak the King’s English — but good old 
Aunt Mandy has endowed him plentifully with a 


SOME LETTERS 


139 


keen wit and as good and kind a heart as she her- 
self has. Maybe he does not speak the King’s 
English but one thing sure: the King himself 
could not boast a finer sense of honor and pride. 

I have done one thing that may be butting in, 
but it seems to me to be so necessary that I am 
sure you will forgive me: I have had Josh and 
Josephus plow up a piece of land on top the 
mountain, where the Englishman once had a gar- 
den, and there I have planned to set out a lot of 
vegetables. It is late to start a garden but there 
are lots of things that will come in mighty handy 
for you when you have a camp full of boarders. 
This was Gwen’s suggestion. Aunt Mandy and 
Josh are enlarging their garden with a hope of 
selling things to you and they are also planning 
to sell you milk. I say all right to that, provided 
Gwen does the milking, but I am sure if Josh does 
it, it will look like cocoa by the time we get it, 
no matter how much it is strained. He is cer- 
tainly one dirty boy but I comfort myself with 
the thought that it is clean Mother &rth dirt, 
the kind Bobby gets on him, and, after all, that 
isn’t so germy. 

W e are having glorious weather and I do wish 
you girls could be here, but no doubt if you were, 
we would not eat up work quite so fast as we are 
doing now. We are enjoying ourselves greatly 
and are getting over our terrible disappointment. 
If Uncle Sam doesn’t want us to soldier for him 
in times of peace we will show him what we are 
good for in times of war. I did think right seri- 
ously of enlisting with the Canadians and going 
over to help the Allies, but somehow I have a 


140 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


feeling I won’t butt in on Europe’s troubles but 
wait for one of our own which is sure to turn 
up sooner or later. In the meantime, thanks to 
you girls, we work so hard in the day time that 
when night comes there is nothing to do but 
sleep. I could sleep on a rock pile I am so tired, 
but instead of a rock pile, a nice canvas cot serves 
me very well. We have all kinds of schemes for 
comfort but I am not going to tell you of them as 
they may not pan out as we expect, and then if 
they do come right, we can surprise you with 
them. 

Bill sends his regards. He stayed awake for 
a little while one night trying to decide which one 
of you was the most beautiful, but as he had to 
give it up, he has lost no more sleep on the sub- 
ject. One thing that makes us work so hard is 
that we feel that as soon as we get the place hab- 
itable you will come and inhabit. My love to the 
girls and Bobby. Tell him there is so much mis- 
chief he can get in up here, I know he is going 
to have the time of his life. 

Your devoted cousin, 

Li:wis Some:rvii.i.e:. 


Miss Elizabeth Somerville to Lewis Somerville. 

Richmond, Va. 

My dear Nephew: 

Your letters have been most satisfactory and I 
am deeply grateful to you for writing so fre- 
quently and in such detail. I spent yesterday 
afternoon with the Carter girls and Douglas read 


SOME LETTERS 


141 


me your last letter to her. I must say your de- 
scription of the mountain woman and her son is 
far from pleasant. 

You are very much mistaken, germs do lurk 
in the earth. Tetanus and hookworm are both 
taken in directly from the earth, and meningitis 
is considered by some of the best authorities to 
be a product of rotting wood. Did the English- 
man die of T. B.? If he did, no power on earth 
will make me sleep in that cabin. The daughter 
no doubt has inherited the disease from her par- 
ent and is this moment stirring the dread germ 
into your batter cakes. She sounds to be very 
industrious and efficient. Do not praise her too 
much but remember: ''A new broom sweeps 
clean.’’ Please find out from this girl what was 
the matter with her father. Did you burn the 
sulphur candles? 

The Carter’s tenants take possession of their 
house next week and then all of the girls and that 
Bobby, who is certainly a living illustration of 
“Spare the rod and spoil the child,” will come to 
me until it is time to go to the mountains. It will 
be quite a care for me, but I do not forget that 
my mother, your grandmother, was brought up 
in their grandfather’s house. “Cast your bread 
upon the waters and after many days,” etc. Old 
Cousin Robert Carter left no money but many 
debts, debts to himself just like this one that I 
'Owe him. 

Please let me know by return mail what was 
the matter with the Englishman and if he died 
.of T. B.’s. Your devoted 

Aunt Lizzie:. 


142 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


Telegram from Lewis Somerville to his Aunt 
Lizzie. 

Englishman had melancholia and committed 
suicide. Lungs sound. Le^wis. 


From Douglas Carter to Lewis Somerville. 

Richmond, Va., May — , 19 — . 
My dear Lewis : 

You don’t know how we appreciate your kind- 
ness in going up to the mountains and working so 
hard for us. We feel as though we could never 
repay you and Mr. Tinsley for your kindness. 
Everything you have to say about the camp 
sounds delightful. As for your butting in — you 
know you couldn’t do that. If you think Josh 
and the little English girl would be good ones to 
have for the Week-End Boarding Camp, why 
you just engage them. We are so inexperienced 
that sometimes I think we are perfectly crazy to 
undertake this thing, but then I think if the 
boarders don’t like our ways they don’t have to 
stay, and certainly one week-end would not kill 
them. They don’t have to come back, either. 

Nan’s funny ads have called forth all kinds of 
replies and already we have many applications 
for board. One woman wants us to take care of 
her six children as she wants to go to the war 
zone as Red Cross nurse. We had to turn that 
down as Bobby will be about all we can manage 
in the way of kids. She only wanted to pay two 


SOME LETTERS 


143 


full boards for the six children as she declared 
their ages aggregated only thirty-seven, 'which 
would not be as much as two full grown persons. 

Some of our school friends are eager to go, 
and as Cousin Lizzie has a reputation for being 
a very strict chaperone, their mothers are willing. 
Mr. Lane and Dick, the two young men in 
Father’s office, are both coming up when they 
can and they are going to send us some of their 
friends. 

While you have been working so hard, we, too, 
have not been idle. Of course, school has kept 
me very busy as I am anxious to take my exams 
and make all the points I can for college, whether 
I am to go next year or not. Helen has decided 
that her schooling just now is of very little im- 
portance since she has no idea of going in for 
college, so she has simply quit; but she is very 
busy, busier than any of us perhaps. She is 
learning all the cooking that our cook can teach 
her in the few days she is to be with us, and she 
has also joined a domestic science class at the 
Y. W. C. A. and has added jelly roll and choco- 
late pie to her list of culinary accomplishments. 

Dr. Wright made a splendid suggestion: that 
each one of us learns to cook a meal, a different 
menu for each girl. If we do that, we can 
change about and give the boarders some vari- 
ety, and then the responsibility would not rest 
too heavily on any one of us. Nan and I are try- 
ing it and on Saturday I am to serve the family 
a dinner under cook’s directions. Helen, of 
course, scorns Dr. Wright’s suggestion and Lucy 
says she won’t learn anything Helen won’t. 


144 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


Susan, this housegirl who is to go with us, cannot 
cook at all, but we are to have her wash the 
dishes and make up beds, or cots, and set the 
tables, etc. Oscar will wait on the table and help 
with the dishes. 

We are looking out for a cook, but the trouble 
is good cooks are already cooking. This old wom- 
an who has been with us for years is weeping 
all the time because she is too afraid of snakes to 
go to the mountains. I have found her a good 
home and next week she leaves us. Oscar says 
he can cook but he has lived with us, as Lucy 
says, since before we were born, and no one has 
ever known of his so much as making a cup of tea 
or a piece of toast, and I am afraid that he has 
hid his light under a bushel for so long that it 
has perhaps gone out. 

We have sold the car and all debts are paid, 
and we have a tidy little sum to buy camping out- 
fits and also provisions. Mr. Lane assures me 
that the store room will be large enough for a 
quantity of provisions, so we are ordering every- 
thing by the barrel, except pepper, of course. It 
saves a lot and Schmidt pays the freight. We 
already have a list as long as I am of things we 
have to get, and every day one of us thinks of 
more things. 

We are filled with admiration for you that you 
should have thought of a garden. Have you 
looked into the matter of chickens? I remember 
when we have boarded in the country chickens 
were what we and all the other boarders clam- 
ored for. I want to have fried chicken on my 
xnenu that I am to learn to cook, but they are so 


SOME LETTERS 


145 


terribly high now in town that I shall have to 
put in a substitute and learn how to fry chickens 
when they get cheaper, which they will surely do 
later on. 

Dear Cousin Lizzie, who has been kindness 
itself, is to take us to her home after this week, 
where we will stay until we go to the mountains. 
It is so good of her to go with us. I just know 
she hates it and we must all of us try to make 
things 'as easy for her as possible. Will the 
cabin be comfortable? When the other things 
are freighted, I am going to send a little iron bed 
with a good mattress, also an easy chair for her 
to be comfortable in. 

Please remember me to Mr. Tinsley. All the 
girls send messages to both of you. 

Very sincerely, 

D0UG1.AS Carter. 


From Mrs. Carter to her children. 

My darling children : 

I am writing this on the steamer but expect to 
mail it at Bermuda. You are in my thoughts 
every moment, but my dreams of you are so sweet 
and peaceful that somehow I feel that you are all 
right. I know you are anxious about your be- 
loved father and I am very happy to tell you that 
he is much better. It seems that every day puts 
new life in him. At first he lay so quiet and slept 
so much that a strange dread filled my heart. 
The young surgeon on board, who is a friend of 
Dr. Wright, assured me that sleep was the best 


146 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


thing for him, but while he slept, I would get so 
lonely that I could hardly stand it. I had time 
to think much of what a poor wife I have been 
to him and foolish mother to all of you. I have 
not worried him with my grievance against my- 
self, however, and I am not going to worry you, 
but am going to be less selfish with him and may 
even be stricter with you. He lets me wait on 
him now and he thinks it is a great joke to lie 
still and ask me to bring water or to fill his pipe 
or do something equally easy. 

Sometimes he worries about his business, but 
I won't let him talk about it. He thinks he hasn't 
any money left, but of course I know that is non- 
sense. Dr. Wright told me he would look after 
you girls and see that you were well taken care 
of. As for money, — why, you don't need much 
cash and our credit at the shops is perfectly good, 
and you can get what you need. If you summer 
in the mountains, which is what Dr. Wright 
hinted you might do, you must all of you have 
plenty of little afternoon frocks. I hate to see 
girls at the springs wear the same clothes morn- 
ing and afternoon. Don’t be dowdy, I pray of 
you. 

You had better take Susan wherever you go 
so she can look after Bobby, who is too large for 
a nurse, I know, but who needs much attention. 
Susan can look after your clothes, too, and do 
up your lace collars and keep your boots cleaned. 
Keep the other servants in town on full pay and 
be sure that they have plenty of provisions. I 
think nothing is so horrid as the habit some per- 
sons have of letting servants shift for themselves 


SOME LETTEES 


147 


while they are off enjoying themselves at the 
springs. 

I am hoping for letters when we land at Ber- 
muda. I am hungry for news of all of you. 
Your poor father talks a great deal of you and 
wants to go over incidents of your childhood. 
He says he is relying on your good sense to keep 
you from harm until we return. 

We both of us liked Dr. Wright very much, — 
at least, your father liked him. I was too afraid 
of him to call it liking but I trusted him implicitly, 
and now that your father is so much better, I 
know that his treatment was exactly the right 
thing. This young surgeon on board says that 
Dr. Wright is one of the very finest young men 
in the profession and his friends expect great 
things of him. 

Our quarters are very comfortable and, strange 
to say, although the food is far from dainty, I am 
enjoying it very much. It is well cooked and 
everything is spotlessly clean. They have room 
for only thirty passengers on this boat as it is 
entirely given up to freight. This young sur- 
geon has accepted a position on the boat so he can 
have time to do some writing he is deep in. 

It is a very lazy, peaceful life and somehow I 
feel that your father and I have always been on 
this boat and that all the rest of it is a dream — 
even my dear children are just dream children. 
I believe that is the state of mind that Dr. Wright 
wanted your father to attain. I think he has at- 
tained it, too. He worries less and less and will 
lie for hours in his deck chair watching the sailors 
at work, seemingly with no care in the world. 


148 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


Tell my dear little Bobby he must be very good 
and must mind all his sisters, even Lucy. There 
is no scrap of news too small to interest us and 
you must tell us what you are doing and all the 
doings of your friends. Give our kindest regards 
to all the servants and tell them I know they are 
taking good care of you in our absence. 

Good by, my darlings, 

Your Mother. 


Bobby to his father. 

richmond, vA. 

Dere farther? 

i am sho mising U. These here gurls is sech 
tickular feblemales they Dont let a feller git no 
durt on him atall. I is printin this my silf but 
arsker is tellin me how to spil them IJew wourds 
what i aint come tow yit in my book, dr Right 
is awl right wich is a joak. he has reglar in- 
gauged me as his shover to hole out my arum 
whin we gose Round cornders. also to set in his 
cyar an keep the big hudlams from Swipang it. 
They has bin mutch trubble in richmond latly 
becuze of swipars. They jes takes cyars and joy 
riders in them and leaves them in some Dish in 
the subbubs? whitch gose tow show they is jes 
half way bunglars or robers. Plese tell my 
muther that i aint never seed any lady yet what 
is so nice as she Is. I helped dr. Right mend a 
tior yestiddy. it war a puctuashun an speakin of 
them things I hope you and muther is noticing 
how i am a usin punctuashuns in my letter ? sum- 


SOME LETTERS 


149 


time i Am goin to make a joak to dr. Right bout 
that whin he runs over a broaken botle, i aint 
quiet sho how i will uze it but i can bring it in 
sumhow. Did you all no that we air po now! 
i is goin to dress in ovarawls and aint never goin 
to wash no more when onct we gits in the maunt- 
ings. they is a boy up there what never washis 
an lewis Somevil say they is a cow up thair what 
gives choclid. whineva that nice boy milks. 
Helen bernt her thum tryin to brile a stake an 
lucy had to bern hern to. boath of them bernt 
the stake awlso. Dugles saiz i have rit enuf but 
i still have mutch to tel. i am very good when i 
am a slep an when dr. Right lets me be his siztant. 
he is bout the nisest man i ever seed but helen 
saiz he looks like a man she can mak with a 
Hatchet, i done tole him what she saiz an he got 
right redd an sed he was bliged to my fare sister. 
I awlso tole helen what he sed an that wuz when 
she bernt her thum. No more from me at pres- 
ence, 

bobbY. 


From Gwen to Teacher. 

Greendale, Va. 

May — , 19 — . 

My dear Teacher: 

At first, I missed the school so much that I 
felt as though I could hardly stand to have you 
away for four long months. Now I am so busy 
that it is growing much easier for me. Even 
Josh says he misses you, too, but I think he is very 


150 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


happy in not having to bathe. I make him say 
some lessons to me every day and practice his 
penmanship. 

Some gentlemen from Richmond, the capital of 
the state, situated on the James, are now build- 
ing a camp on the land that my father at one 
time owned. They have engaged Josh and me 
to serve in the capacity of cook and gardener. 
I, of course, am the cook. I find I can apply the 
knowledge that you have imparted to me at 
school, and the young gentlemen are very kind 
in praising my culinary efforts. I learned that 
word from Mr. Somerville who used it quite often 
and then I looked it up in my school dictionary 
and now have added it to my vocabulary. 

At first, I felt almost faint when I had to go 
in the cabin where Father and I used to live, but 
it was necessary if I was going to do anything 
for these young gentlemen, and now the horror 
of the cabin has passed from me. I believe I 
would not even mind being there at night, but 
Josh says he is afraid of haunts. Of course he 
expresses himself as ‘Teard er hants.^’ Josh dis- 
tresses me because he will not try to speak proper 
English. He is so good except for not washing 
and saying we uns, etc. 

I try not to be critical of my surroundings, re- 
membering as I ever must, how good Aunt 
Mandy and Josh have been to me, because even 
before Father died Aunt Mandy was the only 
woman I could remember who had ever been 
loving to me. I do wish they liked to wash more 
than they do, though. I try to keep Aunt Mandy’s 
cabin clean and she likes it now that she does 


SOME LETTERS 


151 


not have to do it herself. I set the table care- 
fully, too, and she likes the flowers I put in the 
centre. I think Aunt Mandy would have been 
cultured if she had ever had the chance. She 
loves beautiful things like sunsets and distant 
mountains. 

I think Mr. Somerville and Mr. Bill Tinsley 
like beautiful things, too, but they are like Josh 
in some respects. I believe Josh would just as 
soon have some one see him cry as to come right 
out and say he was really admiring a view. These 
young gentlemen don't mind saying girls are 
pretty, in fact, they are quite frank about saying 
they are even beautiful and have long discus- 
sions about which young lady is the most beau- 
tiful of some sisters, the Misses Carter, who are 
coming up here to be the mistresses of this camp. 
I am very eagerly awaiting their arrival. I am 
to be employed regularly by them, so Mr. Somer- 
ville has just informed me, and I am going to 
make a great deal of money, enough to enable me 
to buy the books I need and have some warm 
clothes for next winter and to pay for my school- 
ing. I appreciate the kindness of the Mission 
School in giving me my tuition so far, and now 
I am extremely happy that I will be able to pay 
something, and that will give the chance to some 
other child in the mountains to get an education. 
The young ladies are to give me ten dollars a 
month for four months. Don’t you consider this 
a rare opportunity? Josh and Josephus are also 
employed by the month. 

I am afraid that my letter is composed in a 
stilted manner. You remember that is the com- 


152 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


plaint you have always made in my compositions, 
but I find it impossible to be free and easy in my 
writing. 

Very sincerely and affectionately, 

Gw^ndolin Brown. 


CHAPTER X. 


F'OR the: mountains. 

On the train at last and headed for the moun- 
tains ! 

That month of preparation had been about the 
busiest in the lives of the Carter girls. Douglas 
had graduated at school and taken her examina- 
tions for college, besides being the head and guid- 
ing star of the family. Her father’s burden 
seemed to have fallen on her young shoulders; 
everything was brought to her to decide. Helen 
was fully capable of taking the initiative but her 
extravagant tendencies were constantly cropping 
up, and Douglas was afraid to give her free rein 
for fear she would overturn them in a ditch of 
debt. 

The letter from their mother had been unfor- 
tunate in a measure since it had but strengthened 
Helen’s ideas on what was suitable in the way of 

clothes. She wanted to plunge into the extrava- 
153 


154 


THE CARTEH GIKLS 


gance of outing suits and pig-skin shoes and all 
kinds of extremely attractive camping get-ups 
advertised in New York papers. Douglas was 
firm, however, and Helen was forced to content 
herself with a love of a corduroy skirt, cold gravy 
in color, with sport pockets and smoked pearl 
buttons. Lucy had pouted a whole day because 
she could not have one, too, just like it. 

Nan was a great comfort to Douglas as she 
was fully sensible of the importance of their not 
charging anything, no matter how small, so that 
when their father did recover he would not have 
debts awaiting him. The only trouble about Nan 
was she was so often in a dream, and her memory 
was not to be depended upon. With all the good 
intentions in the world she would forget to deliver 
a most important message, or would promise and 
mean to attend to something and then lose her- 
self in a book of poetry and forget it absolutely. 

Lucy was gay and bright and very useful when 
it came to running errands. Her only trouble 
was the constant sparring with Helen, whom she 
secretly admired more than any one in the world. 


OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS 155 

Master Bobby had spent a blissful month of 
''shoving'’ for Dr. Wright. Dr. Wright had a 
theory that all children were naturally good and 
that when they were seemingly naughty it was 
only because they were not sufficiently occupied. 

"Give the smallest child some real responsibil- 
ity and he is sure to be worthy of it. If their 
brains and hands and feet are busy with some- 
thing that they feel is worth while, children are 
sure to be happy." Bobby had sat in his car a 
half hour at a time, while the doctor was busy 
with patients, perfectly happy and good, content- 
ing himself with playing chauffeur. He would 
occasionally toot the horn just to let the passer-by 
understand that he was on the job. 

The beloved home had been put in apple pie 
order and handed over to the poor, rich fugitives 
from the war zone. The kind old cook had bid- 
den them a tearful farewell and betaken herself 
to her new place after careful admonishings of 
her pupil, Helen, not to let nobody 'suade her 
that any new fangled yeast is so good as tater 
yeast. 


156 


THE Cx\RTER GIRLS 


The real fun in the venture was buying the 
provisions and necessary camping outfits. That 
was money that must be spent and they could do 
it with a clear conscience. The lists were written 
and rewritten and revised a score of times until 
they could not think of a- single thing that had 
been left out. The freight was sent off several 
days ahead of them to give poor Cousin Lizzie’s 
bed time to get there before them. 

Poor Cousin Lizzie, indeed! She was brave 
about the undertaking up to the time of starting, 
but when she was handed into the common coach, 
there being no parlor car on that morning train, 
she almost gave up. Nothing but the memory of 
old Cousin Robert Carter’s kindness to her 
mother sustained her. 

‘‘A good man leaveth an inheritance to his chil- 
dren’s children,” she muttered as she sank on the 
dusty, dingy cushions of the very common, com- 
mon day coach. ‘‘That is surely what old Cousin 
Robert Carter did. I have not ridden in such a 
coach for more than thirty years, I am sure. 
Why was this train chosen ? There must be good 


OFF FOE THE MOUNTAINS 157 

trains running to the mountains that have chair 
cars/’ 

''Yes, Cousin Lizzie,” said Douglas, "but you 
see Greendale is a very small station and only the 
very accommodating accommodations stop there. 
The trains with chair cars stop only at the big 
places.” 

Douglas was very tired and looked it. She 
was very pale and her firm mouth would tremble 
a little in spite of her self-control. No one seemed 
to notice it, as every one was tired and every one 
had been busy. She felt when they were once 
off that she could rest, if only Cousin Lizzie would 
not complain too much and if Helen and Lucy 
would not squabble and if dear little Bobby would 
not poke his head too far out of the window. 

Dr. Wright came down to see them ofif and as 
he shook hands with Douglas, he looked very 
searchingly at her tired face. 

"You must be selfish when you get to the moun- 
tains and rest for a week,” he said. "You are 
about all in.” 

"Oh, ril be all right in a few minutes. It is 


158 


THE CAKTEE GIRLS 


just getting started that has tired me. Bobby, 
please don't poke your head out, — your arm, 
either. Don't you know something might come 
along and chop you right in two?" 

‘T'm a shover for this here train. If I don't 
stick my arm way out the train a-runnin' up be- 
hind us will c'lision with us." 

‘'See here, young man, you are still in my em- 
ploy and I don't intend to have you working for 
the C. & O. while you are working for me. When 
my chauffeur travels to the mountains, he has to 
keep his hands inside the windows and his head, 
too. He must be kind to his sisters, especially 
his Sister Douglas, who is very tired. I am really 
letting you off duty so you can take care of 
Douglas. You see, when a lot of women start 
on a trip they have to have some man with them 
to look after them." 

“That’s so, boss, an' I'm goin' to be that man. 
Women folks is meant to look after eatin's an' 
to sew up holes an' things. I’m hungry right 
now!" exclaimed Bobby, man-like, finding some 
work immediately for the down-trodden sex. 


OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS 159 

''All aboard V called the brakeman. 

Dr. Wright was bidding hasty adieux when it 
was discovered that Nan had left the carefully 
prepared lunch basket in the waiting-room. Poor 
Nan ! She had been occupied trying to remember 
some lines of Alfred Noyes about a railroad sta- 
tion and had carelessly placed the basket on the 
seat beside her, and then, in the excitement of 
getting Oscar and Susan into the colored coach 
and picking up all the many little parcels 
and shawls and small pillows that Cousin 
Lizzie always traveled with, she had forgotten 
it. 

"Oh, let me get off and get it,’’ she implored, 
but Dr. Wright gently pushed her back into her 
seat and hastily whispered something to her that 
made her smile instead of cry, which she was on 
the verge of doing. She sat quite quietly while 
the engine puffed its way out of the shed and 
Dr. Wright jumped off the moving train. 

She waved to him and he gave her a reassuring 
smile. 


"He is like the hills,” she thought. " 'I will 


160 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


look unto the hills from whence cometh my 
help/ 

‘‘Nan, how could you?” started Helen, and 
Lucy chimed in with : 

“Yes, how could you?” 

“I am so sorry, but maybe it will come all right, 
anyhow.” 

“Come all right, anyhow !” sniffed Cousin 
Lizzie. “It is all right now as far as I am con- 
cerned. I certainly could not taste a mouthful 
in such surroundings as these.” 

Douglas put her tired head on the dingy, dusty 
red plush upholstery and closed her eyes. Food 
made no difference to her. All she wanted was 
rest. Bobby opened the package of chewing gum 
that his employer had slipped him as advance 
wages, and forgot all about the hunger that he 
had declared a moment before. 

“I ain’t a keering. Nan, ’bout no lunch. I am 
goin’ to buy all the choclid an’ peanuts what the 
man brings in the train an’ old lunch ain’t no 
good nohow.” 

Nan kept on smiling an enigmatic smile that 


OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS 161 

mystified Helen and Lucy. They were accus- 
tomed to Nan's forgetting things but she was 
usually so contrite and miserable. Now she just 
smiled and peeped out the window. 

'T don't believe she gives a hang," whispered 
L u / lO Helen. 

''Looks that way. If she had spent hours mak- 
ing the sandwiches, as I did, maybe she would 
not be so calm about it." 

"I made some of them, too." 

"Oh, yes, so you did, — about three, I should 
say." 

"Lots more. You’re all the time thinking you 
make all the sandwiches." 

Douglas opened her tired eyes at the sharp tone 
of voice that Lucy had fallen into. 

"Girls, please don't squabble." 

"All right, we won't! You go to sleep, honey, 
and I'll keep Bobby from falling out the window 
and agree with Lucy about everything even if 
she insists that Dr. Wright is an Adonis. Come 
here, Bobby. Helen is going to make up a really 
true story to tell you," and Helen lifted her little 


162 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


brother from the seat by Douglas. In a few 
moments he was so absorbed in the wonderful 
true story about bears and whales that a little 
boy named Bobby had shot and caught, he did 
not notice that the train had stopped at the first 
station after leaving Richmond. 

Some excitement on the platform made them 
all look out the window. The conductor had 
waved to the engineer his signal for starting when 
a car came dashing madly up to the station. 
Frantic pulling of ropes by the accommodating 
conductor on the accommodating accommodation ! 
A belated traveler, no doubt! 

‘TCs my ’ployer !’’ screamed Bobby. ‘Xook at 
him park his car I Ain’t he some driver, though ?” 

It was Dr. Wright, breaking laws as to speed, 
presuming on the Red Cross tag that the doctors 
attach to their cars. Several policemen had noted 
him as he sped through the suburbs, but felt 
surely it was a matter of life and death when 
they saw the Red Cross tag, and let him go un- 
molested and unfined. 

'‘Here it is. Miss Nan!” he called as he waved 


OFF FOR THE MOUNTAINS 


163 


the heavy basket, endangering the precious sand- 
wiches. Eager hands drew the basket through 
an open window while a grinning brakeman and 
a rather irate conductor got the train started 
once more. 

'^Here's some aromatic ammonia ! Make Miss 
Douglas take a teaspoonful in a glass of water,'' 
he said to Helen as he handed a small vial to 
her over Bobby's head. ''It almost made me miss 
the train, but she must have it." 

''Oh, Dr. Wright, I am so much obliged to 
you. You are very kind to us." 

"Helen's been making up a wonderfulest true 
story for me," called Bobby, leaning out dan- 
gerously far to see the last of his 'ployer. "So 
I'm being good an' not worrying Douglas." 

There was unalloyed approval now in the blue, 
blue eyes, and Helen thought, as the young doctor 
gave one of his rare smiles, that he was really 
almost handsome. 


CHAPTER XI. 


TH^ CAMP. 

The lunch did not go begging. Even Cousin 
Lizzie forgot her disgusting surroundings and 
deigned to partake of Helen’s very good lettuce 
sandwiches. She even pronounced the coffee from 
the thermos bottle about the best she had tasted 
for many a day. 

'‘My cook doesn’t make very good coffee. I 
don’t know what she does to it. When we go 
back to Richmond I think I shall get you to show 
her how you make it, Helen.” 

Helen smiled and had not the heart to tell her 
cousin that her own cook had made the coffee, 
after all. Of all the young Carters, Miss Somer- 
ville was fondest of Helen. She had infinite pa- 
tience with her foibles and thought her regard 
for dress and style just as it should be. 

"A woman’s appearance is a very important 

factor and too much thought cannot be given it,” 
164 


THE CAMP 


165 


she would say. Miss Somerville had boasted 
much beauty in her youth and still was a very 
handsome old lady, with a quantity of silver white 
hair and the complexion of a debutante. ‘'Gen- 
tlemen are more attracted by becoming clothes 
than anything else,'' she declared, “and of course 
it is nothing but hypocrisy that makes women 
say they do not wish to attract the opposite sex." 
Miss Somerville, having had many opportunities 
to marry, and having chosen single blessedness 
of her own free will, always spoke with great 
authority of the male sex. She always called 
them gentlemen, however, and the way she said 
“gentlemen" made you think of dignified persons 
in long-tailed coats and high stocks who paid 
their addresses on bended knees. 

“Only one more station before we get to Green- 
dale!" exclaimed Douglas. “I feel real rested." 

“That's cause I'se been so good," said the angel 
Bobby. “I ain't a single time had my head an' 
arm chopped off. I tell you, I don't do shover's 
work for the C. & O. for nothin'. My boss don't 
'low me to work for nobody but jest him." 


166 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


^'You have been as good as gold,” said Doug- 
las, ^^and now I am going to buy you some candy,” 
she added, as the train boy came through crying 
his wares. 

^^Choclid?” 

^'Suppose you have marshmallows instead. 
They are so much less evident on your counte- 
nance,” suggested Helen. 

‘'All right! Td jest as soon ’cause that 
nice dirty boy in the mountings kin milk me 
some choclid out’n the cow whenever I gits 
hungry.” 

“What a filthy trip it has been!” said Cousin 
Lizzie as she shook the cinders from her black 
taffeta suit. 

“Yes, it is grimy,” declared Helen, “and I came 
off without my Dorine. I had just got a new 
one. I do hate to arrive anywhere with a shiny 
nose. Lend me your vanity box, Douglas, 
please.” 

“Vanity box! I never thought about bringing 
it. It is packed with the other extra, useless 
things in Cousin Lizzie’s trunk room. It never 


THE CAMP 


167 


entered my head that we would want a vanity 
box at a mountain camp/’ 

'Well, I don’t intend to have a shiny nose in 
a mountain camp any more than any other place. 
I hate to look greasy.” 

"Have a marshmallow,” drawled Nan. "They 
are great beautifiers.” 

So Helen powdered her nose with some of 
Bobby’s candy, much to the amusement of that 
infant. 

Lewis and Bill were waiting for the travelers 
at the station at Greendale with the ramshackle 
little car, which they had christened the Mountain 
Goat because of its hill climbing proclivities. 
Josh was also there, with the faithful Josephus 
hitched to an old cart to carry the luggage up to 
the camp. 

The porter from the summer hotel of Green- 
dale was on the platform as the train stopped 
and he immediately came forward, thinking these 
stylish passengers were for his hostelry; but the 
little mountain boy stepped in front of him and 
said: 


168 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


'We uns is you allses baggage man/’ and he 
seized their grips and parcels and won their 
hearts as well with his merry blue eyes and soft 
voice. 

"Oh, you must be the dirty boy what’s got a 
choclid cow!” exclaimed Bobby. "Fm a dirty 
boy, too, now I’m come to live in the mountings 
an’ I’m goin’ to be a baggage man, too, if Dr. 
Wright will let me off from being a shover up 
here where th’ ain’t no traffic cops to ’rest you 
if’n you don’t stick out yo’ arm goin’ round the 
cornders. I’d most ruther be a baggage man 
than a shover if’n I can sit in front with you and 
drive the mule.” All this poured forth in one 
breath while the young men were greeting the 
ladies. 

"All aboard!” shouted the brakeman and the 
signal was given for the engineer to start. 

"Oh, where are Oscar and Susan?” from a dis- 
tracted Douglas. "Stop, please stop!” 

Oscar was discovered peacefuly sleeping and 
Susan so deep in her beloved dream book that she 
was oblivious to the passing of time and miles. 


THE CAMP 


169 


They were dragged from the colored coach by 
the amused brakeman and dumped on the plat- 
form as the train made its second rumbling start 
upgrade. 

The bringing of these two servants had been a 
problem to our girls. They were both of them 
kind and faithful but were strictly urban in their 
raising, and how the real rough country would 
affect them remained to be seen. They sniffed 
scornfully at the small station with its stuffy 
waiting-rooms, one for coloreds and one, whites, 
and looked at the great mountains that closed 
them in with distrust and scorn. 

'‘Uncle Oscar, this place jes' ain’t no place at 
all,” grumbled Susan. "Look at that shack over 
yonder what passes fer a sto’, and this here little 
po’ white boy settin’ up yonder on the seat with 
our Bobby! He needn’t think he is goin’ ter 
’sociate with the quality. You, Bobby, git down 
from thar an’ come hoi’ my han’ !” 

"Hoi’ your grandmother’s han’l I ain’t no 
baby. I’m a ’spressman an’ am a gointer hoi’ the 
mule. That was pretty near a joke,” he said. 


170 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


looking confidingly into the eyes of his new 
friend. ‘'One reason I was so good a-comin' up 
here was because we let Susan go in the Jim Crow 
coach to keep Uncle Oscar company, 'cause when 
she is ridin' anywhere near me she's all time 
wantin' me to hoi' her han.' " 

“We thought we'd make two loads of you," 
said Lewis, when the greetings were over. “Bill 
can go ahead with Aunt Lizzie and some of you 
while the rest of us walk, and when he puts you 
out at the camp he can come back and meet us 
half way." 

“Douglas must ride," declared Helen. “She is 
so tired." 

“I'm a lot rested now." 

“Yes, sure, you must ride," said Lewis, a shade 
of disappointment in his tone as he had been 
rather counting on having a nice little walk and 
talk with his favorite cousin. 

“Say, Lewis, you run the jitney first. Legs 
stifiF and tired sitting still," said Bill magnani- 
mously. 

So while Lewis was cheated out of a walk with 


THE CAMP 


171 


Douglas, he had the satisfaction of having her 
sit beside him as he drove the rickety car up the 
winding mountain road. Miss Somerville was 
packed in the back with Nan and Lucy, but when 
Lucy found that Helen was to walk, she decided 
to walk, too. Susan was put in her place, and 
so her feelings were somewhat mollified. 

^'Josephus ain't above totin' one of the niggers 
'long with the trunks," said Josh, determined to 
get even for the remarks he had heard Oscar and 
Susan make in regard to ''po' white trash." The 
antagonism that exists between the mountaineer 
and darkey is hard to overcome. 

So Oscar, the proud butler of ‘'nothin' but fust 
famblies," was forced either to walk up the moun- 
tain, something he dreaded, or climb up on the 
seat of the cart by the despised “po' white trash." 
He determined on the latter course and took his 
seat in dignified silence with the expres- 
sion of one who says: “My head is bloody but 
unbowed." 

“The freight came and we have hauled it up 
and unpacked the best we could. I am afraid 


172 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


it is going to be mighty rough for you girls and 
for poor Aunt Lizzie, who is certainly a brick 
for coming, but we have done our best,’' said 
Lewis to Douglas. 

‘'Rough, indeed! Who would expect divans 
and Turkish rugs at a camp? We are sure to 
like it and we are so grateful to you and Mr. 
Tinsley. But look at the view! Oh, Cousin 
Lizzie, just look at the view!” 

“Now see here, Douglas, I said I would come 
and chaperone Cousin Robert Carter’s grand- 
daughters if no one would make me look at views. 
Views do not appeal to me.” She couldn’t help 
looking at the view, though, as there was noth- 
ing else to look at. 

‘T’s jes’ lak you. Miss Lizzie. I don’ think a 
thing er views. I ain’t never seed one befo’ but 
I heard tell of ’em. Looks lak a view ain’t nothin’ 
but jes’ seein’ fur, an’ if’n th’ain’t nothin’ ter see, 
what’s the use in it ?” 

Wordsworth’s lines came to Nan and she whis- 
pered them to herself as she looked off across the 
wonderful valley: 


THE CAMP 


173 


'The world is too much with us ; late and soon, 
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers : 
Little we see in Nature that is ours; 

We have given our hearts away, a sordid 
boon! 

This sea that bares her bosom to the moon. 
The winds that will be howling at all hours, 
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers ; 
For this, for everything, we are out of tune ; 

It moves us not. Great God 1 Fd rather be 
A pagan suckled in a creed outworn ; 

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea. 
Have glimpses that would make me less for- 
lorn; 

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea; 
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.^ ’’ 


She intended to whisper it to herself but as 
the march of the lines took possession of her, she 
spoke them out loud without knowing it. On 
the ninth line she came out strong with, " 'Great 
God! Fd rather be — ’ Miss Somerville and 
Susan looked at her in amazement. Her dark 
eyes were fixed on the despised view with a look 
of a somnambulist. 

"Lawd a mussy ! Miss Nan done got a tech er 

heatr. 

"Blow your horn, Lewis. Didn’t you hear 


174 THE CAKTER GIRLS 

Nan?’' from Miss Somerville. ‘'She must see 

something coming.” 

Nan went off into such a peal of laughter that 
Bill Tinsley himself could not have vied with her. 
She blushingly admitted it was just some poetry 
she was repeating to herself, which made Miss 
Somerville agree with Susan that Miss Nan had 
a “tech er heat.” 

“You had better have a dose of that aromatic 
ammonia and lie down for a while when we get 
to the top,” suggested Miss Lizzie dryly. 

The road stopped at the cabin some distance 
from the pavilion, so they alighted and Lewis 
turned the car on a seemingly impossible place 
and careened down the mountain to pick up the 
others before they were exhausted with the climb. 

The cabin was in perfect order and so clean 
that even Miss Lizzie was destined to find it dif- 
ficult to discover germs. Gwen had rubbed and 
scrubbed and then beautified to the best of her 
ability. She had purchased a few yards of coarse 
scrim at the store and fresh curtains were at the 
windows. The white iron bed was made up in 


THE CAMP 


175 


spotless counterpane and pillows, and on the 
freshly scrubbed pine floor was a new rag rug 
of her own weave. The open fireplace was filled 
with fragrant spruce boughs, and on the high 
mantel and little deal table she had put cans of 
honeysuckle and Cherokee roses. She had longed 
for some vases but had not liked to ask the young 
men to buy them. She felt that the curtains were 
all the expense she should plunge them into. 

When Gwen had seen the car approaching she 
had shyly gone behind the cabin. She dreaded 
in a measure meeting these girls and their cousin. 
She had become accustomed to the presence of 
the young gentlemen, but what would the girls 
think of her? Wouldn't they think she was odd 
and funny looking? She was quite aware of the 
fact that she was very different in appearance 
from the girls in cities. She had pored over too 
many illustrated papers not to know how other 
girls her age dressed and looked. Her scant blue 
dress was made after a pattern sent to the Mis- 
sion School by some interested ladies. It was 
supposed to be the best pattern for children to 


176 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


use where the cloth must be economically cut. So 
it was and singularly picturesque in its straight 
lines, but Gwen was but human and now that 
fashion sheets plainly said wider skirts and flar- 
ing, here she was in her narrow little dress ! She 
hated it. Bare legs and feet, too ! 

Her instinct was to turn and flee around the 
mountain to the arms of Aunt Mandy, who 
thought she was the most wonderful little girl 
in all the world. But there was the kind of fight- 
ing blood in her that could not run. The spirit of 
a grandfather who had been one of the heroes 
of Balaclava made her hold up her proud little 
head and go boldly around to the front of the 
cabin to face the dreadful ladies. 

‘'Oh, you must be Gwen!'' exclaimed Douglas, 
coming forward with both hands to greet the 
girl. “Mr. Somerville has told us how splendidly 
you have taken care of them and I know you 
must have arranged this room for Cousin Lizzie. 
It is lovely." 

Gwen no longer felt like one of the Light Bri- 
gade. This was not the jaws of Death and the 


THE CAMP 


177 


mouth of Hell. This sweet young lady didn’t 
even notice her bare feet, and the scanty skirt 
made no difference at all. She introduced her 
to Miss Somerville and to her sister, Nan, who 
was also graciousness itself. Miss Somerville 
was a little stiff, reminding Gwen of the old ladies 
on the hotel piazza who bought the lace and 
tatting that she and Aunt Mandy made on the 
long winter evenings when the sun went down 
behind the mountains so early. 

''Yes, the room will do very well.” 

It was rather faint praise and took very little 
time to say when one considered that Gwen had 
spent days on her task. But Nan and Douglas 
made up to her for their cousin’s seeming cold- 
ness by going into raptures over the cabin. 

"Lewis did not tell us he was going to white- 
wash the room for Cousin Lizzie,” said Nan. 

"I whitewashed it myself. The young gentle- 
men were so occupied with constructing the pa- 
vilion that I could not bear to interrupt them.” 
Nan and Douglas could not help smiling at the 
little English girl’s stilted language but they hid 


178 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


their amusement. prepared the attic room for 
the negro maid. Would you like to go up and 
see that?^’ 

''Yes, indeed! Come on, Susan, and see your 
room. It is to be right up over Cousin Lizzie’s.’’ 

"Well, praise be to my Maker that I ain’t goin’ 
to have to sleep in the air. My lungs is weak at 
best an’ no doubt the air would be the death of 
me. 

Susan’s figure belied her words, as she was 
an exceedingly buxom girl with a chest expan- 
sion that Sandow might have envied her. 

The attic was entered by a trap door from the 
room below and in lieu of stairs there was nothing 
but a ladder made chicken-steps style : small cross 
pieces nailed on a board. 

The attic room was scrubbed as clean as Miss 
Lizzie’s. The low ceiling and very small win- 
dows certainly suited Susan’s idea of sanitation, 
as very little air could find its way into the cham- 
ber. A rough wooden bed was built against the 
wall, as is often the way in mountain cabins, 
more like a low, deep shelf than a bed. Gwen 


THE CAMP 


179 


had stuffed a new tick with nice clean straw and 
Susan bid fair to have pleasant dreams on her 
fresh bed. A night spent without dreams of some 
kind was one wasted in the eyes of the colored 
girl who consulted her dream book constantly. 

Josh had railed at Gwen for putting a bunch 
of black-eyed Susans in the attic room. 

'Waitin' on a nigger! Humph! You uns 
ain't called on to lower yo'sef that a way. Nig- 
gers is niggers an' we uns would ruther to bust 
than fetch an' carry fer 'em." 

"This seems a very small thing to do," Gwen 
had answered. She did not share the moun- 
taineer's prejudice against the black race. "I 
have no doubt this girl will like flowers just as 
much as Miss Somerville." 

So she did and a great deal more, as she ex- 
pressed her appreciation of the tomato can of 
posies, and Miss Somerville had not even noticed 
the bouquets in her room. As Susan followed the 
girls up the funny steps and her head emerged 
through the trap door, her eyes immediately fell 
on the flowers. 


180 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


'Well, Gawd be praised! My dream is out! 
I done fell asleep in the cyars an^ dream I see 
little chillun picking flowers in a fiefl. My book 
say that is one er two interpretations: you is 
either goin’ ter have fresh flowers laid on yer 
grabe er some one is goin’ ter make you a prisint 
er flowers. I thank yer, little miss, fer the 
bowkay.’' 

"Indeed, you are welcome,’’ and Gwen gave her 
a grave smile. 

Susan had been quite doubtful at first what her 
attitude should be with this white girl who went 
barefooted and whitewashed cabins herself. She 
knew very well how to treat po’ white trash : like 
the dust under her feet. There was no other way 
for a self-respecting colored girl to treat them. 
But this white girl was different, somehow. 

"She got a high steppin’ way that is mo’ like 
quality,” she declared to Oscar later. "She calls 
that slab-sided, shanty-boat ’ooman Aunt Mandy, 
but I ’low they ain’t no kin. Now that there Josh 
is low flung. I think Miss Douglas is crazy to 
let Bobby run around with him as much as she 


THE CAMP 


181 


do. I bet his maw would stop it fast enough/’ 

The Carter girls’ enthusiasm and praise for the 
camp fully repaid the young men for their untir- 
ing labor. The pavilion was really a thing of 
beauty, built right up in the trees, as it were, like 
a great nest. It had no walls, but the roof pro- 
jected far enough to keep out anything short of 
horizontal rain. An artistic rustic seat encircled 
the great poplar trunk in the centre and rough 
benches were built around three sides of the hall. 
Stairs went down on the fourth side to the 
kitchen in the basement, and outside, steps gave 
entrance to the pavilion. The whole building was 
screened. This was to be dining-room, living- 
room, dance hall and everything and anything 
they chose to make of it. The girls had re- 
served their victrola in renting the house and 
it now had the place of honor near the cir- 
cular seat. 

'We just unpacked it this morning,” said 
Lewis. "There was no use in music with no girls 
to dance with.” 

"Aren’t men strange creatures?” laughed 


183 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


Helen. ‘^Now girls love to dance so, they dance 
with each other, but two men would just as soon 
do fancy work as dance with one another.” 

''Sooner,” muttered Bill. "Let’s have a spin !” 

So a spirited "one-step” was put on and then 
the youths felt themselves to be overpaid for their 
work as they danced over the floor that had been 
the cause of many an aching joint and mashed 
thumb. Joints were not aching now and mashed 
thumbs were miraculously cured by clasping the 
hands of these pretty girls. 

That first supper in the mountains was a very 
merry one. Miss Elizabeth was much refreshed 
by a nap and came to the pavilion quite resigned 
to life. She had nothing but praise for the handi- 
work of her beloved nephew, and even included 
the laconic Bill in her compliments. She wished, 
however, he would not be so sudden in his laugh- 
ter as she was afraid it betrayed the vacant 
mind. 

Gwen had made a delicious fricassee of chicken 
in the fireless cooker, the mysteries of which she 
had been taught at the mission school. Hot bis- 


THE CAMP 


183 


cuit and honey from Aunt Mandy's hive com- 
pleted. the feast. 

‘What delicious biscuit!'’ exclaimed Douglas. 
“Isn't Gwen a wonder ?" 

“ 'Sense me, Miss Douglas, but I made them 
biscuit," said Susan, who was waiting on the 
table. 

“But, Susan, I thought you said you couldn't 
cook a thing!" 

“That was in Richmond. I ain't boun' by no 
regulations of no club whin I leaves the city. 
You see in my club, which is called the Loyal 
Housemaids, we swars never to 'tend to two 
'fessions at onct. When we is housemaids, we 
is housemaids, but out here where th'ain't ter say 
no house, I kin do as Vs a mind, and I sho' did 
want ter make some biscuit ter go with that there 
fricassy. Uncle Oscar an' I is goin’ ter share the 
cookin'. An' Miss Gwen is goin’ ter do the haid 
wuck. We ain't conversant with the fi'less 
cooker an' we don't know nothin' 'tall 'bout light- 
in’ kerosene stoves." 

Our girls were much gratified by Susan's will- 


184 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


ingness to turn in and be of some real assistance. 
The work when only the family were there would 
be light, but if the many week-enders who had 
announced their intention of coming to their 
camp materialized, they well knew that it would 
take the combined efforts of them all to feed the 
hungry hordes and to wash the many dishes and 
make up the many cots. The laundering of the 
bed linen and towels would amount to more than 
they could cope with, so they had decided to 
patronize a laundry in Charlottesville, for all the 
flat work. 

Bobby was in a state of extreme bliss. He had 
been allowed to help Josh feed Josephus and now 
he was permitted to come to supper without do- 
ing more towards purifying himself than just 
‘Penciling the Germans’’ off his hands and face. 
He was to sleep in the tent with his Cousin 
.Lewis, too. 

The girls’ tent was pitched just behind the Eng- 
lishman’s cabin, while the masculine quarters 
were nearer the pavilion. 

‘We will put up other tents as we need them,” 


THE CAMP 


185 


said Lewis. ‘‘We have chopped down enough 
trees and cleared enough ground to camp the 
whole of Richmond.’^ 

“Thank goodness, our boarders won’t come for 
a week yet and we can have time to enjoy our- 
selves for a while,” sighed Douglas. 

She was very tired but it was not the miserable 
fatigue she had felt in town. It was a good 
healthy tired that meant a night’s rest with noth- 
ing to think about but how good life was and how 
kind people were. Everything was certainly 
working out well. Cousin Lizzie was behaving 
in a wonderful way for an old lady who thought 
much of her ease and had no love of Nature. 
Helen and Lucy were too interested to squabble 
at all and so were getting on splendidly. Bobby 
was behaving himself beautifully, and even the 
servants were rising to the occasion and evidently 
intending to do their best. The only fly in the 
ointment was their attitude towards Josh and his 
towards them. He openly called them “niggers,” 
and they called him “po’ white” right to his face. 
Gwen, they seemed to have accepted at her face 


186 


THE CAKTEE GIRLS 


value and not judged by her bare feet and scanty 
frock. 

''Niggers, an’ min’ you, Miss Douglas, we don’t 
’low nobody but us to call us out of our names 
that way,” said Oscar. "Niggers is reg’lar blood- 
houn’s an’ they kin smell out quality same as 
geologists kin. Me’n Susan knows that that there 
little Miss Gwen is a lady bawn.” 

"I believe she is, Oscar, and I hope you and 
Susan will be just as nice to her as you can be.” 

"We’ll do our best, but land’s sake. Miss Doug- 
las, don’ arsk us to be gentle with that there Josh. 
He is low flung and mischeevous to that extent.” 

"All right, Oscar,” laughed Douglas, "but don’t 
be too hard on him.” Lewis had told her that 
Josh was fully capable of taking care of himself 
and in the trial of wits Josh would certainly 
come out ahead. 

"He already done scart Susan to death, tellin’ 
her about hants in the mountings. He says that 
Miss Gwen’s paw was pestered by a ringin’ an’ 
buzzin’ in his haid that drove him ’stracted, and 
he used to roam the mountings trying to git shet 


THE CAMP 


187 


of the sound, til bynby he couldn’t stan’ it no mo 
an’ up’n jumped off’n a place called the Devil’s 
Gorge and brack ev’y bone in his body. An’ he 
sayed the Englishman still hants these here parts 
an’ you can hear the buzzin’ an’ ringin’ some- 
times jes’ as plain as the po’ man uster hear it in 
his life time. He say he won’t come over here 
arfter nightfall to save yo neck.” 

''What nonsense!” declared Douglas. "Well, 
all the buzzing on earth won’t keep me awake,” 
but before she went to sleep, she recounted the 
ridiculous tale to her three sisters, who shared 
the tent with her. 

They agreed that they would have to ask Lewis 
to speak to Josh about telling such things to poor 
Susan, who was already eaten up with supersti- 
tion. 

"Ain’t it grand to sleep in a ?” but Lucy 

was asleep before she said what it was grand to 
sleep in. Nan tried to recall some lines of 
Wordsworth that Gwen reminded her of, but 
"The sweetest thing that ever grew,” was all she 
could think of before sleep got her, too. Helen 


188 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


forgot to put olive oil on her eyebrows, a dark- 
ening process she was much interested in, and 
went off into happy, dreamless slumber. Doug- 
las shut her tired eyes and sleep claimed her for 
its own before she could count ten. 


CHAPTER XII. 


HANTS. 

''Help! Help!’" The call was followed by a 
blood-curdling shriek that drowned the noise of 
tree frogs and whip-poor-wills. 

Douglas and Nan both awoke with a start and 
Helen stirred in her sleep. Lewis, over at the 
men’s tent, made a mental note that he must go 
out with a gun early in the morning and try to 
shoot that screech owl. Bill, whose passion next 
to soldiering was base ball, muttered an unin- 
telligible something about: "Ball two! Strike 
one ! Rotten umpire !” 

Oscar heard it, and remembering the terrible 

tales Josh had been telling, drew his blanket up 

close over his wool. "Walls don’t keep hants out 

no better’n canvas, but all the same I’d like to 

know they was somethin’ more substantiated 

around this nigger than jist a dog tent. I’s gonter 
189 


190 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


git some cotton to stuff in my years ’ginst anud- 
der night/' he said to himself. 

''Help! Help!" again rang out. "The debble 
is got me ! Gawd in Hebben help me !" 

"Susan!" gasped the three older girls. They 
were out of their cots and into kimonos by the 
help of a flash light Helen had under her pillow, 
before the call came again. The three-quarter 
moon had set but the stars gave light enough 
for them to see the two young men in full 
tilt, coming to their assistance, rifles in hand 
and striped bath gowns flapping around bare 
legs. 

"Help! My sweet Gawd, help!" 

Miss Somerville had more fear of germs than 
anything else, so slept with her door wide open. 
Being a very thorough person in anything she 
undertook whether it was solitaire, knitting 
scarves, chaperoning or sleeping, Miss Somerville 
was now sleeping with all her might. She had 
pitched her — what would be called a snore in a 
plebeian person, but we will call it her breathing, 
— she had pitched her breathing in harmony with 


HANTS 


191 


the tree frogs and katydids and was now hitting 
off a very pretty tune. 

Up the chicken steps the young folks trooped, 
Lewis in front with the flash light, Miss Somer- 
ville still sleeping the sleep of the virtuous and 
just. Poor Susan was lying on her shelf-like bed, 
her head covered up, having emerged only for 
yelling purposes and then quickly covering her- 
self again. Her great feet were sticking out at 
the bottom and on them were perched three large 
hornets, stinging at their ease. A kerosene lamp, 
turned down too low and smelling at an unseemly 
rate, was on the box that served as a table. The 
windows were tightly closed because of her weak 
lungs and the air could almost have been cut* 
with its combination of odors, cheap-scented soap, 
musk and just plain Susan. 

''Susan, Susan! What is the matter?’’ de- 
manded Douglas. 

"Oh, little Mistis ! That English hant has got 
me by the toe. I was expecting him after what 
that there po’ white boy done tol’ me, but I 
thought maybe he would be held off by Miss 


192 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


Lizzie Somerville. Hants ain't likely to worry 
the quality." 

‘'Nonsense, Susan, nothing has you by the toe," 
said Helen sternly. “You must have had night- 
mare." 

“But look at the hornets!" exclaimed Nan. 
“Why, the room is full of them." 

Then such an opening of windows and tum- 
bling down that trap door as ensued 1 Susan had 
bounced out of bed to join them, regardless of 
the young men, but since she was enveloped in a 
high-necked, very thick pink outing flannel gown 
she was really more clothed than any of them. 

“I'd fight 'em if I had on more clothes," de- 
clared Bill, as he landed on the floor below. 

“Ouch! One got me on the shin then," from 
Lewis. 

“One's down my neck!" squealed Helen. 

“Shut the trap door so they won't disturb 
Cousin Lizzie," commanded Douglas. 

They got out of doors without Miss Somer- 
ville's even dropping a stitch from the raveled 
sleeve of care she was so industriously knitting. 


HANTS 


193 


''You could almost two-step to it/’ drawled Nan, 

I 

nursing a stung finger. 

Bill went off into one of his uncontrollable 
bursts of laughter and the peaceful sleeper 
stirred. 

"Shh ! Bill, you must dry up,” warned Lewis, 
"ril get out another cot and Susan can finish the 
night in Aunt Lizzie’s room.” 

"Oh, Mr. Lewis, please don’t make me go back 
in yonder. The debble will git me sho next time. 
I’s safter out under the ferment of the stars.” 

"You can come into our tent, Susan,” said 
Helen kindly. "We are not going to have you 
scared to death.” So the extra cot was brought 
and room was made for the poor, trembling vision 
in pink outing flannel. 

"Tell us what it was that got you scared,” 
asked Nan when they had once more settled them- 
selves and the young men had gone back to their 
quarters, much relieved at the way things had 
turned out. 

"Well, that there low-flung Josh was tellin’ me 
’bout a English hant what had suffered with a 


194 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


buzzin' an’ roarin’ in his haid ter that extent 
he done los’ his reason an’ one dark night he 
up’n kilt hissef. An’ they do say that the po’ 
man still ain’t got no rest from the buzzin’ an’ 
he hants these parts, and sometimes them what 
is ’dieted ter hants kin hear de buzzin’ and roar- 
in’, ’cause even though the hant is laid the buzzin’ 
an’ roarin’ roams the mountings lak a lost soul. 
Whin I gits in the baid, I was plum tuckered 
out so I didn’ wase no time but was soon sleepin’ 
the sleep that falls alike on the jest an’ the on jest. 
I wuck up with a smotherin’ feelin’.” 

should think you would, with not a bit of 
air in your room !” 

wuck up, as I say, kinder smotherin’ like 
an’ then I hears the English hant as plain as day. 
Bzzzz ! Bzzzz ! Brrrr ! Brrrr ! ‘My Gawd,’ says I, 
‘pertect me.’ I tun over in the baid an’ then the 
buzzin’ sounded lak the rushin’ of mighty water. 
‘Mebbe he will pass on by me an’ go to Uncle 
Oscar,’ thinks 1. ‘He was the one what scoffed 
at Josh’s tellin’ of the tale.’ I kivered my haid 
an’ then that hant got me by the toe.” 


HANTS 


195 


‘'But, Susan,’' laughed Douglas, “of course 
you know it was a hornet that had you by the 
toe.” 

“You mought think it. Miss Douglas, but hants 
is powerful slick the way they kin change they- 
sefs ter natural things. That debble jes’ changed 
ter hornesses ter mysterfy all of you white folks. 
He was a debble hant up ter the physological mo- 
ment all of you appeared. I knows lots about 
hants from my books.” 

“Well, I know a lot about hornets from ex- 
perience,” said Helen, trying to reach the stung 
place between her shoulders. 

“Me, too,” drawled Nan. “My finger is twice 
its natural size.” 

“Well, let’s all of us go to sleep now,” said 
Douglas. “You are not afraid in here, are you, 
Susan?” 

“No’m ” and the girl was off asleep in less 

time than it had taken her to arouse most of the 
campers. 

“Helen,” whispered Douglas, “I am afraid 
Josh is responsible for the hornets. It sounds as 


196 


THE CAKTER GIRLS 


though he had prepared his way to scare Susan 
by telling the ghost story first.’’ 

am afraid it is so. We will have to see to 
that youngster.” 

“I think Lewis can handle him. I’ll ask 
him in the morning. In the meantime, I 
will tell Susan not to mention the ‘hants’ and 
maybe Josh will give himself away with curi- 
osity.” 

It was a hard task her young mistresses had 
set Susan. 

^‘Thain’t nothin’ ’tall ter hants if you cyarn’t 
tell about ’em,” she grumbled. 

^'Well, just wait a day, Susan, and then you 
can tell all you’ve a mind to.” 

At breakfast that morning Miss Somerville 
complained that her rest had been very much 
broken but that she had slept much better than 
she had ever expected to. 

am at best a light sleeper,” she remarked. 
^'The smallest thing disturbs me. Now I dis- 
tinctly heard Mr. Tinsley laugh, although he must 
have been in his own tent.” 


HANTS 


197 


This was too much for poor Bill, who went off 
into one of his specialties. 

'T’d ruther to laugh like that than sing like 
Robinson Crusoe in the victrola,’’ said Bobby. 
‘T kin holler real loud but I ain’t nothin’ of a big 
laugher. Josh, he don’t make no noise ’tall when 
he laughs. He jist shakes his innards. He was 
shakin’ em this morning ’cause Susan said she 
had a bee sting on her toe, the reason she is 
a-limpin’ so.” 

Helen and Douglas exchanged glances with the 
young men, whom they had informed of their 
suspicions regarding the humorous Josh. 

''Douglas,” said Miss Somerville, "I can’t see 
why Bobby should use the language of a negro. 
He is quite old enough to begin to speak prop- 
erly.” 

"Well, you see. Cousin Lizzie, he is really noth- 
ing but a baby, and Mother and Father have 
never corrected him because Father said he would 
drop it soon enough and he thinks it is so 
amusing.” 

"Baby, your grandmother ! I am ’most a man 


198 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


an' Josh is goin' ter learn me how to say we uns 
an' you uns like he does. He says his teacher 
an' Gwen is tryin' to make him talk properer, but 
he ain't goin' to talk no way but what his four 
bears talks. I wish I had four bears what could 
talk. I forgot to ask Josh to tell me about them 
bears but I will, some time." 


CHAPTER XIII. 


THE AVENGING ANGEE. 

'^osh/’ said Lewis to the mountain boy, whose 
blue eyes had an extra twinkle in them that morn- 
ing as he hitched his mule to a nearby pine tree, 
waiting for orders, '^are you afraid of hornets?'’ 

‘'Not if we uns kin git some kerosene smeared 
on in time.” 

“Well, you smear on some kerosene in time 
and go get that hornet’s nest out of Susan’s 
room.” 

“Well, bless Bob! How did you uns know we 
uns put it thar under her bed?” 

“Never mind how I knew it. You just go and 
get it and take it far from the camp and then 
come back here and report for work.” 

Josh winked at Josephus and went to do Mr. 
Somerville’s bidding. 

“He don’t look mad,” thought Josh. “I hope 
he ain’t mad with we uns.” Josh had met his idol 

199 


200 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


in Lewis Somerville. Boylike he admired 
strength more than anything in the world, and 
could not this young giant lift a log and place it 
on his shoulders and carry it to the desired spot 
as easily as he himself could carry a twig? There 
was a poetical streak in this mountain boy, too, 
that saw in Lewis the young knight. “ ’TainT 
nothin’ to fool a nigger,” he comforted himself 
by saying. 

^Well, sir,” he said cheerfully to Lewis, ‘^the 
hornets is all good as dead. What must we uns 
do now ?” 

''Now you are going to take your punishment 
for being no gentleman.” 

"Gentleman! Huh! We uns ain’t never set 
up to be no gentleman.” 

"Oh, I didn’t know that. When I hired you to 
come work for my cousins, I understood, of 
course, that you were a gentleman. Otherwise I 
would not have considered you for a moment. 
Do you suppose I would have any one come 
around these ladies who are everything in the 
world to me if he were not a gentleman?” 


THE AVENGING ANGEL 201 

^'There's that nigger, Oscar! We uns is as 
good as he is. He ain't no gentleman." 

‘'He is as good a gentleman as there is in the 
land. He came up here with these young ladies 
whom he has known ever since they were babies 
rather than desert them when he thought he 
might be needed. I have never known Oscar to 
say a coarse word or do an ungentle act. I, too, 
have known him all my life. He is a good, clean 
man, inside and out, and would cut off his hand 
before he would scare a helpless woman." 

“ ’Twan't nothin' but a nigger 'ooman 1" 

“You say nothing but a negro as though that 
were the lowest thing in the world, and still just 
now you spoke with a certain pride of being as 
good as one. Now I tell you, you are not as 
good as one unless you act better. You have a 
long line of free English ancestors behind you 
and these poor things are but recently out of 
slavery. Now you come with me and take your 
punishment if you want to stay and work for this 
camp." 

Josh looked rather startled. Did this young 


202 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


gentleman mean to beat him, and all because he 
had put a hornet’s nest under a silly colored girl’s 
bed? Josh had received many a licking from his 
raw-boned mother, and when Aunt Mandy 
whipped, she whipped. He was not afraid of the 
physical hurt of a beating, but that line of Eng- 
lish ancestors of which Lewis had spoken all re- 
belled in this, their little descendant, against being 
beaten by any one who was no blood kin. 

‘‘March!” said Lewis. 

Well, if he were to go to execution like a sol- 
dier, he could stand it better. With flashing eyes 
and head well up. Josh walked on by Lewis’s 
side. 

The camp builders had fashioned, with great 
ingenuity, a shower bath to one side of the 
kitchen and store-room under the pavilion. The 
mountain spring was dug out into a very re- 
spectable reservoir, and this was piped down to 
furnish running water in the kitchen and a strong 
shower in this rough lean-to of a bath-room. 
The water was cold and clear and the fall was 
so great that the spray felt like needles. The 


THE AVENGING ANGEL 


203 


young men reveled in this vigorous bathing and 
the Carter girls had taken a go at it and one and 
all pronounced it grand. 

Josh looked upon this enthusiasm on the sub- 
ject of mere bathing as affectation. Miss Somer- 
ville might have had the same attitude of mind 
towards persons who liked Limberger cheese or 
read Sanskrit for pleasure. 

Lewis directed his prisoner to this bath-house. 

''Anyhow, we uns ain't gonter git licked befo' 
the niggers," thought Josh with some satisfac- 
tion. 

"Now take off your clothes," said Lewis 
sternly. 

So he was more thorough than his mother. 
She contented herself with tickling him on his 
bare legs, and if the black snake whip could cut 
through the thin rags he called clothes, all well 
and good. Josh never remembered her having 
tackled him in a state of nature. He made no 
demur, however. If this, his idol, chose to beat 
him naked, he could do it. He hoped he would 
draw the blood just so he. Josh, could show these 


204 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


people from the valley how a mountain boy 
could take what was coming to him without a 
whimper. 

He dropped the ragged shirt and trousers that 
constituted his entire clothing and stood before 
the avenging hero, a thin, wiry little figure about 
the color of a new potato that has but recently 
left its bed. 

‘‘Now, sir!’^ he flung out defiantly. 

“Stand in the middle of the room,'’ and Lewis 
began to roll up his shirt sleeves. Josh closed his 
eyes for a moment. Where was the stick or 
whip ? Did the young gentleman mean to spank 
him like a baby? That would be too much. 
Even Aunt Mandy had given up spanking years 
and years ago. 

“Ugh!" 

Josh jumped as something struck him sud- 
denly and remembered, as a drowning man 
might, an incident in his childhood when Aunt 
Mandy was still in the spanking era. She had 
gone for him with a hair brush and had inad- 
vertently turned the brush up-side-down and he 


THE AVENGING ANGEL 205 

had got the full benefit of the bristles on his bare 
hide. 

Lewis had turned on the shower full force and 
the little new potato was emerging from its coat- 
ing of Mother Earth. Gasping and spluttering, 
Josh stood his ground. He wanted to run into a 
far corner to escape this terrible fusillade, but 
an inward grit that was greater than the out- 
ward show made him stay in the spot where his 
commander had first placed him. Lewis gradu- 
ally lessened the force of the shower and once 
more the culprit could breathe. He gave a long, 
gasping sigh and then grinned into the face of 
his monitor. 

“Gee, that was the wust beatin’ we uns ever 
got! Somehow all the nigger-hate ain’t washed 
out’n we unses’ hide yit. Mebbe you uns had best 
turn it on agin.” 

“All right, but take this soap first and lather 
yourself all over.” 

That was more than Josh had bargained for, 
hut the soap was nice and fresh smelling and the 
lather came without labor. This form of ablu- 


206 


THE BARTER GIRLS 


tion was very different from what Josh had been 
accustomed to. His idea of a bath had always 
been first the toting of much water from the 
spring, a truly difficult task, for, with the short 
sightedness of country people, of course their 
cabin was built far above the spring instead of 
below it. This letting gravity help do the work 
is a comparatively new thing and one that coun- 
try people have not generally adopted. Then, to 
Josh, the bath meant chopping of more wood to 
make the fire to heat the water. Then a steam- 
ing wash tub and the doughty Aunt Mandy 
equipped with a can of foul-smelling, home-made 
soft soap and a scrubbing brush. 

This delightful tingling of his unaccustomed 
skin with the nice white soap was a sensation that 
seemed to Josh the most wonderful he had ever 
experienced. All of these delights with no labor 
attached to the enjoyment of them ! Just turn a 
handle and there you are, clean and cool, laun- 
dried while you wait. 

‘'Kin we uns do this every week?’" 

“Every day, if you’ve a mind to. It certainly 


THE AVENGING ANGEL 207 

improves your appearance. Don’t you feel 
good?” 

‘^Yessirree ! Jes’ like a mockin’ bird sounds on a 
mornin’ in May when his wife wants him to come 
on and help her build the nes’ aginst the time 
when she has got ^ to lay the eggs, and he wants 
to sing all day and jes’ use las’ year’s nes’. Don’t 
know as we uns ever did feel quite so like a — a — 
gentleman.” 

''Good for you, Josh ! Now put on your 
clothes. Here’s a towel. We’ve got a lot of 
work to do to-day, and you and Josephus must 
help.” 

"All right, sir ! Wish Josephus could a had the 
heatin’ we uns done got. ’Twould sho have made 
him feel like he had a extra feedin’ er oats. We 
uns is ’bliged to you uns, sir. You uns done 
made a gentleman out’n we uns an’ mebbe a few 
more showers will turn we uns into a nigger 
lover,” and Josh’s blue eyes twinkled merrily 
from the setting of a clean, pink face. 

Bobby was the only person not pleased by the 
improvement in Josh. "Grown-ups is all time 


208 


THE CAKTER GIRLS 


wantin’ to clean up folks. Josh was a million 
times prettier dirty, an’ now he can’t make choclid 
milk no mo’. I think Cousin Lewis is done mint 
him.” 

After that morning, whenever Josh was 
wanted and not to be found he could usually be 
discovered taking a shower bath. He evidently 
felt he must make up for lost time, all those 
years when he had gone crusty, as he expressed it.^ 


CHAPTER XIV. 


wee:k-e:nd5:rs. 

‘Tf the weather only holds!’’ exclaimed Doug- 
las. ‘‘This first week-end is the most important 
of all. If the boarders have a good time they 
will want to come back, and then they will give 
us such a good name that others will want to 
come, too.” 

“People who can’t rise above mere weather 
should be taught a lesson,” declared Helen. 

“Nonsense, child!” from Miss Somerville. 
“Weather is something no one can rise above. A 
week of rain in these mountains would make all 
of us ready to kill each other and then commit 
suicide.” 

“I hope we won’t be put to the test,” said Nan. 

“I should hope not ! ‘Continual dripping on a 
rainy day’ is a proverbial evil. I hope some 
bridge players will be numbered among the 

guests. I am hungry for a game.” 

209 


210 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


‘Why, Cousin Lizzie, you know we don’t mind 
playing a bit,” said Helen. ‘Why don’t you ask 
us whenever you want to ?” 

“Don’t mind playing? Bless you, child ! Who 
wants to play with people who play because they 
‘don’t mind playing’ ? I can see that game now ! 
‘What’s trumps ?’ ‘Whose play is it ?’ ‘I thought 
I had played !’ ‘I must have reniged as I find I 
have a heart, after all.’ No, no! When I play 
cards, I want the game made up of devotees. 
How would you like a partner in the dance who 
danced merely out of good-nature and kept for- 
getting whether he was dancing the schottische 
or mazurka?” 

As no one had danced either of those obsolete 
dances for at least thirty years, the girls could 
not help a few sly smiles. 

How rapidly that first week had flown ! They 
had settled now into regular camp life, even Miss 
Somerville. She had secretly decided that Na- 
ture was not half bad and had once found herself 
admiring a sunset. She had kept her admiration 
to herself, however, for fear some over-zealous 


THE WEEK-ENDERS 211 

person might make her get up and see a sunrise. 

Oscar and Susan, with Gwen doing the head 
work, had managed the cooking beautifully for 
the few people they had to serve. It remained to 
be seen how things would go when the boarders 
poured in for the week-end. 

Pour in they did, six more than the girls had 
prepared for ; but Lewis and Bill with their ready 
inventions made beds for the boys of spruce 
boughs, and immediately put in an order for more 
cots and an extra tent. 

There were two careful mammas who had 
come along to look after their daughters and an 
old bachelor who had a niece in tow; so Cousin 
Lizzie made up her table of bridge and every one 
was happy, especially the daughters of the care- 
ful mammas and the niece who was in tow. If 
one must be chaperoned, it is certainly pleasant 
to have the chaperone interested in something be- 
sides chaperoning. 

The Mountain Goat made three round trips to 
the station to meet passengers on the afternoon 
train on that first Friday, and other enthusiastic 


212 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


campers walked up the mountain. Josephus was 
very busy with a cart full of bags and bundles. 
One of the stipulations that the girls had made in 
their advertisements was that every one must 
bring his or her own blankets. This was at the 
instigation of Dr. Wright, who said it would be 
very difficult to furnish blankets enough ; and also 
for sanitary reasons he knew it to be wise. 
Sheets are easy to have washed, but blankets are 
not so simple a proposition. 

The twenty week-enders were all young with 
the exception of the two careful mammas, the 
old bachelor with the niece in tow, and two stiff- 
backed spinsters who must have had some good 
reason of their own for coming to camp in the 
mountains but they did not give it. They looked 
very grim and uncompromising as they sat on the 
back seat of the Goat with a plump and pleasing 
little stenographer, who was to take her much- 
needed holiday at the camp, wedged in between 
them. 

‘'They must be geologists,’' whispered Douglas 
to Lewis. Douglas and Lucy had gone to the 


THE WEEK-ENDERS 213 

station to meet the newcomers, while Helen and 
Nan were to receive them at camp. ''One of 
them had a little hammer sticking out of her 
pocket.’' 

"W ell, let’s hope they will keep their hammers 
for rock's and not knock the camp with them.” 

"Do you know, I did an awfully foolish thing? 
I put Tillie Wingo on the front seat with Bill and 
forgot to introduce them. Helen would never 
have done such a tactless thing.” 

"Well, a small thing like an introduction here 
or there won’t stop Tillie. I bet she talks poor 
Bill blue in the face,” laughed Lewis. 

So she did. Miss Hill, the pleasant stenogra- 
pher, told Helen that not for one moment did 
Tillie stop talking on that zig-zag ride up the 
mountain. She poured forth a stream of delight- 
ful high-pitched nothings into Bill’s crimson ear. 
Bill, as was his habit, said nothing, and, like the 
tar baby, kept on saying nothing. She had his 
ear; his eye must perforce remain on the perilous 
road; his tongue was his to hold, and he held it. 
Once he let forth a great laugh which had the 


214 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


effect of shutting Tillie up for almost thirty sec- 
onds; but it was not time to go to sleep yet and 
Tillie was accustomed to talk until she went to 
sleep and sometimes even afterwards. 

''A week-end camp is a most original idea and 
every one in Richmond is simply wild about it. 
You see, the Carters are very popular and if they 
decide to do something, lots of people will want 
to be doing it, too. Helen Carter is considered 
the best dressed girl in Richmond, not that she 
dresses more than any of the other girls but she 
has such good taste. All of us girls are wild 
about her clothes. I adore camping! Fd join 
the Camp-Fire but somehow khaki is not becom- 
ing to me. Do you know, I do not think that 
muddy tan is becoming to decided blondes — not 
that I am such a very decided blonde. I know 
lots of girls who wear it who are not near so 
highly colored as I am — but somehow I think tan 
takes all the life out of a blonde. Of course, one 
can wear white up close to the face, but even then 
the tan kind of ruins a blonde complexion. I pre- 
fer blue and pink and lavender and green and, of 


THE WEEK-ENDERS 


215 


course, yellow, and I think grey is just sweet for 
a blonde. I am wild for a black dress but my 
mother is so old-fashioned she thinks no one un- 
der thirty should wear black unless, of course, 
there happens to be a death in the family. Un- 
der those circumstances, I fancy she would let me 
wear black. I would not wear heavy mourning 
but just some diaphanous, gauzy thing with tulle 
— although I do think that organdy collars and 
cuffs set one off terrifically well. I think I would 
make a splendid widow — don't you ?" 

It was here that Bill gave his great guffaw, 
but it was also at a particularly ticklish place in 
the road, so he could not look at his blonde 
passenger. 

Tillie stopped for the aforesaid thirty seconds 
and then decided that the jdnmh young man run- 
ning the car was a common chauffeur and per- 
haps she had better change her form of conver- 
sation to one not suggesting equality. It never 
entered her head to stop talking. 

'‘Richmond is just running over with jitneys 
now. They make such a dust you can't see 


216 


THE CAKTEK GIRLS 


whether they are coming or going. Did you ever 
run a jitney? They say there is lots of money in 
them. I should think you would do better doing 
that than doing this — of course, though, you know 
best, and perhaps you get your board thrown in 
up here. Mamma said she knew that the Carter 
girls would not know how to feed people because 
they have always led such soft lives, but I said I 
was coming, anyhow. I am dying to fall off. I 
really should have walked up the mountain in- 
stead of riding as that would be a good way to 
start, but I had on my best shoes and I knew it 
would ruin them. Douglas Carter wrote me to 
be sure and bring a blanket, but I simply could 
not get one in my grip and I said I would sleep 
cold before I would be seen carrying a great old 
blanket over my arm like lots of these people. It 
was horribly hot in Richmond and I did not think 
it could be cold coming just this little way. I 
think it is so brave and noble for the Carter girls 
to try to help their father this way. They do say 
he is dippy and was quite wild-eyed. I have a 
friend who was on the sleeper with Mr. and Mrs. 


THE WEEK-EXDEES 


217 


Carter when they went to New York, and he says 
they shut themselves up in the drawing room and 
acted awful queer. He didn’t say just how, but it 
must have been something fierce. What is this 
funny looking place? Is this the camp? My, 
ain’t it odd ? I am very much obliged to you for 
bringing me up. Please look after my suitcase 
for me — it is the large one, really a small trunk, 
but I had no idea of mashing my new pink into a 
pulp just for the sake of reducing my luggage. 
Here, this is for you — and please get my bag- 
gage,” and Tillie handed the astonished Bill a 
quarter. 

‘'Didn’t know what to say, so I just took it,” 
Bill told Lewis afterward. “First money I’ve 
earned since I was a kid and picked blackberries 
for Grandmother to jam, at five cents a quart. 
Dog, if I would not rather pick the berries, 
briars and all! I felt like hollering to some- 
body to throw something over the cage, that 
the canary was making such a fuss I couldn’t 
think.” 

Josh, too, was the victim of tips but he indig- 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


SIS 

nantly returned the money that was proffered 
him with this remark : 

‘We uns ain’t beholden to nobody, but is em- 
ployed regular by Mr. Somerville, we uns and 
Josephus.” 

That is often the spirit of the mountaineer. 
He will sell anything but cannot stomach a tip. 

Helen and Nan received the guests as they 
piled out of the Mountain Goat or came up the 
winding road on foot. It was a very exciting 
moment for our girls. This was really the be- 
ginning of their great adventure. Were they to 
succeed or not? The week-enders were there, 
for once at least, but could these girls make it so 
agreeable that they would want to come back? 

“Do look at Tillie Wingo, Nan ! Did you ever 
see such a goose? She has on ten dollar cham- 
pagne shoes and a blue Georgette crepe that 
would melt in a mist !” 

“Yes, she is some goose, but she will pay us 
just as sensible board as anybody else, so we 
must not be too critical,” and Nan went forward 
to meet the pretty blonde Tillie and the stiff- 


THE WEEK-ENDERS 


219 


backed spinsters and the pleasant Miss Hill, and 
Helen smothered her indignation at Tillie’s bad 
taste in being so unsuitably dressed for camping 
and did her best to make it pleasant for her, 
Georgette crepe, champagne shoes and all. 

There was much enthusiasm from the new ar- 
rivals as they inspected the camp. Every one 
went into ecstasies over the view and the ar- 
rangements. Miss Somerville awaited them in 
the pavilion, where she stood as at a reception, re- 
ceiving the guests with great formality. 

“These young persons must understand fully 
that I am the chaperone, and I think a dignified 
reception of them will be conducive to good be- 
havior on their part,’’ she had said to Helen as 
she dressed herself in a black silk afternoon gown 
and arranged her beautiful white hair in its shin- 
ing puffs. 

At Gwen’s instigation, afternoon tea was 
served as soon as the formal reception was over 
— tea for those so inclined and grape-juice-lemon- 
ade for the m.ore frivolous. 

A card table was unfolded for Miss Somer- 


220 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


ville, the two anxious mothers and the old bache- 
lor with a niece in tow. 

‘'Quite like the springs/’ whispered Cousin 
Lizzie to Helen, as she got brand new packs of 
cards for the opening game of the season. 

Our girls had thought they would have to be 
quite busy entertaining the week-enders, but they 
found to their delight that they could entertain 
themselves. There were more than enough of 
the male element to go around and in an incredi- 
bly short time they had sorted themselves to their 
mutual satisfaction and were either dancing to 
the latest record, which Tillie Wingo had put in 
her bursting semi-trunk, in lieu of a blanket, or 
were roaming over the mountain side. 

Lil Tate, Lucy’s boon companion and school- 
mate, had come and the two girls had gone off 
arm in arm, while Frank Maury, a callow youth 
of fifteen, walked shyly after them, hoping they 
would take him in their train and fearing every 
moment that they might. His hopes and fears 
were both realized and by supper time the three 
were sworn allies; Frank had determined to come 


THE WEEK-ENDERS 221 

Up the next week and bring Skeeter, his chum, 
and Lil had declared she was going to make her 
mother let her spend the whole summer with 
Lucy. 

■ '^lamma’s an awful ’fraid cat about me and 
ju L would come along. Thank goodness, she 
and Miss Somerville have got cards to occupy 'em 
and she has forgotten there isn't but one of me," 
laughed Lil, who was a sprightly little brunette. 
‘T wisht I had been born triplets and then she 
wouldn't have to be so particular." 

‘'Gee, I'm glad I ain't a girl — but I like girls a 
lot — " stammered Frank. “Skeeter and I think 
they are just great," and so they chattered on. 

Bobby was not so happy. His friend Josh was 
too busy with Josephus and the luggage to have 
him around, and no boon companion had arrived 
for him. He had been made to wash and dress, 
which, he considered, was a great breach of 
faith on the part of his sisters. He had it firmly 
placed in his memory that he had been promised 
by some one that when he got to the mountains he 
would never have to wash and dress. He sat 


222 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


with a very disconsolate mien in a corner of the 
pavilion, watching Tillie's pretty little feet in 
their champagne shoes twirling round and 
around, every few moments with another pair of 
masculine shoes accompanying them, as Tillie 
was never long without a flock of the opposite 
sex in her wake. She could hardly get around 
the pavilion before the dance was broken into by 
some eager swain. She was noted as being able 
to dance down more partners than any girl in 
Richmond, and it was slyly hinted that she was so 
long-winded because of her never ceasing prac- 
tice in conversation. 

Bobby looked gloomily at the twinkling feet. 
They were too clean for him, those champagne- 
colored shoes. His own feet were disgustingly 
clean, too. Maybe he could rectify that with a 
judicious sprinkling of grape juice and then some 
clay sifted over them. He would try ! Just then 
the stiff-backed spinsters, who turned out to be 
educators off on a botanical and geological spree, 
bore down on him and seating themselves on each 
side of him began : 


THE WEEK-ENDERS 


223 


'Xittle boy, are you enjoying your stay in the 
mountains ?” 

^‘Nawr 

‘'Ah, perhaps you are too idle and need occu- 
pation. Can you read and write ?” 

“Naw, I can’t read writin’ but I can read 
readin’.” 

“You should have a task set you every day and 
then vacation would not hang so heavily on your 
hands. Some useful bit of information imparted 
to you would be edifying and useful.” 

“Pshaw ! That’s the way Cousin Lizzie talks. 
She’s our chapel roan an’ knows mo’n anybody 
’bout Solomon an’ all his glory. She done learnt 
me a verse already onct this mornin’.” 

“Ah, indeed ! And can you repeat it to us ?” 

“Yes ! I reckon ’twas the grape juice an’ vic- 
trola that made her choose this one: ‘Wine is a 
mucker an’ strong drink is rag time.’ I kin learn 
mos’ anything,” and Bobby hastened off to put 
the clay on his feet before the grape juice bath 
had time to dry. 


CHAPTER XV. 


IvKTTDRS from WFFK-FND camp. 

From Tillie Wingo to Her Best Friend Grace. 

Greendale, Va. 

Saturday Morning. 

My darling Grace : 

Such a time as we are having — Pve almost 
danced up my new ten dollar shoes, but I am 
sure glad I wore them as they have been much 
admired. There are oodlums of men up here and 
some of the prettiest dancers I have ever met. 

I must tell you what a terrible break I made. 
There is a man here named Bill Tinsley, and do 
you know I took him for a jitney driver the first 
day I got here and gave him a tip — twenty-five 
cents. He took it like a mutt and now he has a 
hole in it and wears it around his neck and every- 
body thinks it is an awful joke on me. I must 
say that it is hard to tell one kind of man from 
another when nobody introduces you. He is 
awful dum but dances like Volinine. He never 
opens his face except to feed it and to laugh and 
he laughs louder and more than anybody I have 
ever met before. 

Speaking of feeding, the eats are fine. I don’t 
see how the Carter girls ever learned how to do 
it but they have the best things! I hoped it 
224 


LETTERS FROM WEEK-EFTD CAMP 225 


would be bum as I want to fall off. I have al- 
ways been a perfect thirty-six and must say I 
don’t relish taking on flesh, but I can’t resist fried 
chicken and waffles. 

I am almost sorry I brought my new pink as I 
really need some kind of outing dress, but I did 
not have room for so many things and I do think 
that it is best to have plenty of dancing frocks 
rather than sport suits that after all do not be- 
come me very much. 

We have chaperones to burn as Miss Elizabeth 
Somerville is here and Mrs. Tate may stay a long 
time so Lil can be here with Lucy Carter. I am 
dying to stay but $2.00 per is right steep 
for yours truly. I don’t think that is much for 
what you get and I think the Carter girls are real 
smart to charge a good price as long as they are 
giving you good things. Helen Carter does a lot 
of the cooking and has the sweetest little bunga- 
low aprons to cook in. They are pink and blue, 
just my style, and when I get a trousseau I intend 
to have one. 

We danced last night until eleven and then old 
Miss Somerville made all of us go to bed. She 
couldn’t see to play cards was the reason she was 
so proper. Little dinky kerosene lamps that blow 
out in the wind are not much for card playing but 
they do fine for dancing. The boys say they are 
going to bring up some electric lanterns the next 
week-end so the old lady can see to play and she 
will forget the time. 

Did you ever sleep in a tent, Grace? Well, it 
is great — I was real sorry I didn’t have a blanket 
when it blew up so cold. It was right down 


226 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


nippy. I wasn^t going to say a thing but I was 
sorry I hadn’t even brought a sweater — one of 
the fellows didn’t have a blanket either but I 
heard him say he was going to sleep in his clothes. 
A blue Georgette crepe and a pink chiffon 
wouldn’t help me much and all of my clothes are 
diaphanous this summer. I am sharing a tent 
with two old maids and a sten from Richmond. 
Do you know when I went to my tent I found six 
blankets on my cot and Susan the maid brought 
me two more? It had got out among the men 
that I didn’t have a blanket, how I can’t imagine, 
and they sent me theirs. Now wasn’t that too 
sweet of them? I sent them all back but a lovely 
cadet blue — it was so becoming I chose that. It 
turned out to be Mr. Tinsley’s so I believe he is 
not mad about the tip I gave him. 

We are going on a walk this morning over to 
a terrible place called the Devil’s Gorge. I am 
going to wear Lucy Carter’s shoes and Nan’s 
skirt and Helen’s middy blouse and Douglas has 
a hat for me. The sten in the tent with me lent 
me some stockings. You see I brought nothing 
but silk ones. After we got to bed last night and 
I was almost asleep but was talking to the sten, 
who is a very nice agreeable girl — the old maids 
were both snoring — we heard a car chugging up 
the hill and it seems two more men had arrived, 
motored all the way from Richmond. It was a 
Dr. Wright and a boy named Dick. I heard 
Helen Carter, in the next tent, just raising Cain 
and saying he was very inconsiderate to come in 
on them at night that way, but before they could 
so much as get up to see where they were to sleep, 


LETTERS FROM WEEK-END CAMP 227 


they got a message that the new comers had 
brought their own blankets and hammocks and 
no one was to stir for them. I met Dr. Wright 
at breakfast and I think he is real cute. Helen 
Carter is mighty rude to him and I can't see how 
he stands it. Helen has lovely manners usually 
but she certainly does pick him up quick. He is 
a general favorite with the rest of the family 
though, and Bobby is just wild about him. No 
more at present. I don't see how I ever wrote 
this much as there has been a lot of noise and I 
know ten times I have been begged to stop writ- 
ing and come dance. It looks like rain but I do 
hope it won't. My blue will melt I know if it 
rains. Your best friend, 

TiIvUE WiNGO. 


Skeeter from Frank Maury. 

Hello Skeeter ! 

Come in, the water's fine ! Say, Skeeter, 
what's the reason you can't light right out and 
come up to camp ? Be sure and bring a blanket, 
the nights are cold as flugians. Miss Douglas 
Carter says that they call it a week-end camp just 
for cod, but we can stay through the week if 
we've a mind. Bully eats and plenty of 'em, and 
say, Skeeter, two mighty prime girls — no non- 
sense about them but spunky and up to snuff. 
They are named Lucy Carter and Lil Tate. 
They say they'd like to meet you a lot. If you 
come we can play five hundred when we are not 
climbing the mountains and hunting bee trees. 


228 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


Lucy has some chores she has to do but Lil and I 
help and we get through in a jiffy. It is just fun. 
I talk like I been here a month and it is just one 
night. Anyhow, Lil and I helped this morning 
and we are going to do it every morning. You 
see, these Carter girls are running this camp for 
the spondulix they can get out of it and it means 
all of them have got to spit on their hands and 
turn in. Lucy has to help wipe the dishes when 
they have many folks. I blew in the glasses and 
polished them so fine that Miss Helen said she 
would like to hire me. I ain't going to tell you 
more of the camp because I am sure you will be 
here yourself soon. It beats the beach all hollow. 
These girls are sure slick, these Carter girls. 
They have a camp fire going all the time to make 
it look al frescoish, but they do their cooking 
mostly on stoves and in fireless cookers. They 
roast the potatoes in the camp fire and bring them 
to the table with ashes on 'em to make 'em look 
more campyfied; and they have a big iron pot 
hanging over the fire but they never have any- 
thing in it but water. Say, Skeeter, when you 
come, bring your fish lines as there is a stream 
that looks like fish. Let a fellow know when to 
look for you. Yrs. truly, 

Frank Maury. 

Susan Jourdan to Melissa Thompson, the former 
cook at the Carters'. 

Dere ant Melisser? 

i am sogournin hear most profertably to all 
consearned. me and uncle Oscur is took over the 


LETTERS FROM WEEK-END CxVMP 229 


Brunt of the laber but the yung ladys is very kon- 
siderable of us and all of them healps at every 
chanst. miss Helun is astonishun in her caper- 
bilitys, morn what we thort posserble. We had 
upwards of thirty last night for super and it took 
a sight of vittles to fill them folks. We want 
countin on morn twenty- four and want countin' 
on them eatin quite so much but miss Helun took 
holt and stirred up some batty kates and got em 
started to fryin befoar the waffles give out and 
all the folks turned in then and et batty kates like 
they aint never already filled up on waffles. 
White folks are sure quick to think in times of 
stress. Niggers jest lay down and give up when 
anything suddint turns up like extry stomiks but 
white gals aint nocked out by sich things. Now 
uncle Oscur and me would have to know long 
time befoar han about batty kates but miss Helun 
just waltzed in and made em. it war the las think 
they learnt her to make at the XYWZ whar she 
tuck a coarse in culminary cookin. Theys a yung 
lady here named miss Guen who is a mistery to 
me and uncle Oscur. she is bar futed and 
dressed in a dress no biggern a flower sax but she 
talks properern miss Lizy sumervil and hoalds 
up her haid ekal to mis Carter herself, she is a 
gret han at cookin and shen Me together kin git 
up a sweet meel. She was floared by the Nos. 
last nite tho and shen Me was bout givin up when 
miss Helun stept in. miss Helun looks Sweet in 
her bugaboo apern i think dr. Right thinks so too 
but when he started to say something to her bout 
it she pritty near bit his haid off. she is got it in 
for him good and wright but the others is dafty 


230 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


bout Him and Bobby thinks he is the angle 
Gabrul hisself. I aint writ you bout a low flung 
mounting boy up hear what put a hornets nest 
under my baid the fust nite we sogourned hear, 
he is impruved now because of mr. Lewis who 
sayed his say to Him and thin made him take a 
bath when it want morn Chewsday. We gits 
along with him by gittin out of his Way. Ill 
give it to him that he is smart enuf and kin work. 
He is got strange notions tho and whin some of 
the compny handed him a little change for his 
trouble in totin up they bags he got insulted, 
uncle Oscur and I says we would like some of 
them insults heeped on us. no more from yours 
in haste at preasant. I dreemed bout teeth last 
nite wich is sure sine of death but miss Nan 
sayed it was because i sleapt with a wad of chue- 
ing gum in my mouth and it sprung my Gaw and 
maid my teeth ake. we are xpecting a large 
Crowd for the 4th of July, it air a strange thing 
to me that white folks should make so mutch 
noise on the day that our rase was given its free- 
dom. The folks is all lawd in prase of my biskit 
which is no trubble at all to roll out. the yung 
folks is all gone on a walk what they calls a hyke. 
They is going to a fearsum spot known as the 
devilsgorge. twas there that miss Guens paw 
made way with his life, miss Guen and i is to 
serve lunch for miss Lizzie sumervil and some 
ladies and a gent who is too crepit to hyke. They 
is endorsed in cards and done forgot to chapper- 
roon. thaint none here what needs watching, 
that pretty miss Tillie wingo is mighty flity but 
thaint no meanness in her. the bows act like 


LETTERS FROM WEEK-END CAMP 231 

beas round a honie pot with her. She don’t talk 
nothin but fulishnes and gigglin but men fokes is 
sometimes took with that sawt of tainment. 
miss Nan done say she thinks twould be good 
bizness if they ask miss Tillie to stay on as a gest. 
She earns her keep and weakenders will come 
here jest cause of her. miss Duglas say so too 
but miss Helun says let her stay but make her get 
sum sootable duds as shes got no i dear of lending 
her her noo accordeonroy skurt perchused spe- 
cally for the mountings and she sayed she seen 
miss Tillie eying it with Mutt Ise. I am enjoyn 
poar helth and hope it finds you the same. 

respeect. 

Susan Jourdan. 


CHAPTER XVL 


the: hike:. 

You could plainly see the Devihs Gorge from 
Camp Carter, that is, you could see a dent in the 
neighboring mountain, and no one but Josh 
knew that it was two hours’ steady walking to 
that purplish dimple. Two hours’ steady walk- 
ing is not possible with twenty-odd persons, and 
so it took nearer four to reach the end of their 
journey. There were many pauses to rest and to 
tie shoe strings and refresh themselves at gur- 
gling springs. Josh led the way with Josephus as 
pack mule, the lunch strapped on his back and 
Bobby perched on top like a Great Mogul. 

Josephus was at a great disadvantage as his 

short fore leg was down hill. ‘'Never mind, he’ll 

play thunder goin’ back,” Josh consoled himself 

and Bobby, who had to sit very carefully to keep 

from falling off on the down side. Josephus 
232 


THE HIKE 


233 


limped cheerfully on as though there were noth- 
ing he enjoyed more than a hike where he was 
allowed to carry the lunch. 

''He is such a cheerful old mule that I just 
know if he had been born a canary bird he would 
be singing all the time/’ declared Nan. "I think 
he has a most enviable disposition.” 

"Yes, his disposition is more to be envied than 
his job,” suggested one of the party. 

"Never mind, we will lighten his load for him 
before we return. I am starved.” 

"Who is it that is hungry?” 

"Me, me !” from so many mouths that the edu- 
cating spinsters’ precise "I, I,” was lost in the 
avalanche of me’s. 

Those worthy ladies were in a seventh heaven 
of bliss. They had found many botanical speci- 
mens which they pounced upon for future analy- 
sis, and their little hammers were going whack! 
whack! at every boulder that poor Josephus 
stumbled over. They were really very nice and 
kind, and as for their backbones, it was not their 
fault* that they had pokers instead of vertebrae. 


234 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


The Devihs Gorge was worth the long walk, 
even to those who had no hammers. Great rocks 
were piled high on top of one another and all 
down the mountain side was an enormous crack 
in solid rock. 

''Geewhiz! Something must have been doing 
here once to make such a mess,’' declared Lewis 
Somerville. 

"'Just look at that great rock balanced there on 
that little one ! It would take just a push to send 
it clattering down. To think that one great 
heave of Mother Earth must have sent it up, and 
there it has been just as it is for centuries!” said 
Douglas. 

"Well, we uns bets Mr. Bill could send it over 
with one er his side splitters.” And with that 
from Josh, Bill gave a sample of his laugh that 
did not dislodge the great boulder but made Tillie 
Wingo stop talking for a whole minute. 

"You uns ain’t lowing to eat here, is you uns?” 
asked Josh rather plaintively. 

"Well, this is a pretty good place,” suggested 
Dr. Wright, who had found a pleasant companion 


THE HIKE 


235 


in Miss Hill although he had made some endeavor 
at first to walk beside Helen. But that young 
lady swished her cold-gravy corduroy skirt by 
him and refused to be walked beside. Helen was 
looking particularly charming on that day, al- 
though she could but confess to herself that she 
was a little tired. Making sandwiches for such a 
lot of persons was no joke, and she had been at it 
for hours before they started on the hike. She 
had had plenty of helpers, but sandwiches were 
her particular stunt and she had had a finger in 
every one. 

Dr. Wright's last glimpse of Helen as she had 
sat in the coach of the moving train, telling a 
truly true made-up story to Bobby, had remained 
a very pleasant picture in his mind. He had de- 
cided that there was a lot of sweetness in the girl 
and certainly a great deal of cleverness and 
charm — if she would only not feel that her thorny 
side was the one always to be presented to him. 
When he had handed her the aromatic ammonia 
for Douglas and she had thanked him so sweetly, 
he had felt that surely the hatchet was buried be- 


236 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


tween them and now they were to be friends. 
He had been thinking of her a good deal during 
the past week and had quite looked forward to 
the possibility of becoming better acquainted with 
her. 

Helen had really meant to be nice, but on the 
young doctor’s arrival a spirit of perverseness 
had seized her and she had her thorns all ready to 
prick him whenever he approached her, hoping 
for some share of the sweetness she could lavish 
on others : on Bobby, for instance. That young- 
ster always declared Helen was his favorite sis- 
ter, and there was never a time when Bobby was 
too dirty or too naughty for Helen to think he 
was not the sweetest and most kissable thing in 
the world. As Bobby’s conversation when he was 
with his ’ployer was taken up a great deal with 
Helen, and vice versa, those two young persons 
perforce heard much of one another. Helen 
was grateful to Dr. Wright for his kindness to 
Bobby and at the same time was a little 
jealous of Bobby’s affection and admiration for 
him. 


THE HIKE 


237 


‘Ht isn’t like me,” she would argue to herself, 
^‘but somehow this man seems always to be put- 
ting me in the wrong, and now he even has Bobby 
loving him more than he does me, and as for the 
girls — they make me tired !” 

That very morning when they were dressing 
for the hike and she was putting on her cold- 
gravy corduroy skirt, grey pongee shirtwaist and 
grey stockings and canvas shoes — all thought out 
with care even to the soft grey summer felt hat 
and the one touch of color: a bright red tie 
knotted under the soft rolling collar — she had 
been irritated almost to a point of tears because 
Nan, who was all ready, came running back into 
the tent to put on some khaki leggins because Dr. 
Wright said it would be wise to wear them, as 
a place like the Devil’s Gorge was sure to be 
snaky. Douglas and Lucy had done the same 
thing and had wanted her to. 

‘Tndeed I won’t ! How did he happen to be the 
boss of this camp? His power of attorney does 
not extend to me. I’ll have him know ! Besides, 
do you think I am going to ruin the whole effect 


238 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


of my grey costume with those old mustard col- 
ored leggins? Not on your life 

''Helen is very tired; that’s what makes her 
so unreasonable,” Nan had whispered to Douglas 
as they left the tent to Helen and her costume. 
"She has worked so hard all morning on the sand- 
wiches. When I finished the deviled eggs, I 
wanted her to let me help, but she wouldn’t.” 

"Yes, I know. I was so busy in the tents, mak- 
ing up cots and straightening up things, that I 
had to leave it all to you and Helen, but I thought 
Gwen and Susan were there to help.” 

"So they were, but Susan has a slap dash way 
of making sandwiches that does not appeal to 
Helen, and while Gwen is very capable, she can- 
not take the initiative in anything unless she has 
been taught it at school. The next time we make 
sandwiches she will do it much better. She was 
so anxious to make them just right that she was 
slower than Brer Tarripin.” 

"I asked Gwen to go with us this morning, but 
she shrank back in such horror at the mention of 
the Devil’s Gorge that I realized I had been cruel, 


THE HIKE 


239 


indeed, to speak of the place to her. That’s 
where her father killed himself, you know.” 

‘^Yes, poor girl! Doesn’t it seem strange that 
there were no papers of any sort found to show 
where he came from ?” 

Just then Dr. Wright joined them and they 
told him of the little English girl and how her 
father had killed himself and how, there being no 
papers to show that he had made a payment on 
the mountain property. Old Dean, the country 
storekeeper, had foreclosed at the Englishman’s 
death and the property had later been given to 
their father in payment of a debt Dean owed him 
for services in rebuilding the hotel at Greendale, 
also owned by Dean. 

^"Aunt Mandy says it was only about a thou- 
sand dollars in all,” explained Douglas, ‘'and she 
was under the impression that Mr. Brown had 
paid cash for the land, but he was so reticent no 
one knew much about him and old Dean said 
that he had never paid anything. Of course 
Dean is the rich member of the community and 
gives them credit at his store, so all the mountain- 


240 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


eers are under his thumb, more or less. Father 
got only half the land.’' 

When Helen appeared, she fancied Dr. Wright 
looked disapprovingly at her because of her leg- 
ginless state, but on the contrary he was thinking 
what a very delightful looking person she was 
and never even thought of leggins. He only 
thought how nice it would be if she would permit 
him to walk by her side and hold back the low 
hanging branches and briars so that her bright, 
animated face would escape the inevitable 
scratches that attend a hike in the mountains. 
He liked the way she walked, carrying her head 
and shoulders in rather a gallant way. He liked 
the sure-footed way she stepped along in her 
pretty grey canvas ties. He liked the set and 
hang of her corduroy skirt and the roll of the soft 
collar of her shirt — above all, he liked the little 
dash of red at her throat. She reminded him of 
a scarlet tanager, only they were black, and she 
was grey, grey like a dove — but there was cer- 
tainly nothing dovelike about her, certainly noth- 
ing meek or cooing as she swished by him. 


THE HIKE 


241 


No one laughed more or chattered more than 
Helen did on that hike, not even Tillie Wingo her- 
self, the queen bee of laughers and chatterers ; but 
Nan noticed that the last mile of their walk her 
sister's carriage was not nearly so gallant, and 
Dr. Wright noticed that the scarlet of her tie 
was even more brilliant because of an unwonted 
paleness of her piquant face. He tapped his 
breast pocket to be sure that the tiny medicine 
case he always carried with him was safe. 

‘‘You never can tell what will happen when a 
lot of youngsters start otf on a hike, and it is well 
to have 'first aid to the injured' handy," he had 
said to himself. 

"Wal, if you uns is lowing to eat here, reckon 
we uns will drive Josephus round the mounting a 
bit. We uns feels like it's a feedin' the Devil 
and starvin' God to eat in sech a spot," and Josh 
prepared to unload his mule after he had assisted 
Bobby to the ground. 

"Oh, please don't eat here," begged Nan, "this 
is where the Englishman died." 

"Where? Where?" the others demanded, and 


242 


THE CARTEK GIRLS 


Josh, nothing loath to tell the dramatic incident 
and emboldened by the crowd and broad daylight, 
when hants were powerless, told again the tale 
of the man with the sad, tired face who was 
always trying to get away from the ringing and 
roaring in his head; how he had drifted into 
Greendale and bought the land with the cabin on 
it from old Dean and taken his little girl up there 
where they had lived about two years; and then 
how one night he had not come home, and Gwen 
had come to their cabin early in the morning to 
ask them to hunt her father, and after long 
search they had found him down in the Devil's 
Gorge — dead. 

'^Dead's a door nail and Gwen left 'thout so 
much as a sho 'nuf name, 'cause the Englishman 
alius called hisself Brown, but the books what 
Gwen fetched to we allses' house is got another 
name writ in 'em, an' my maw, she says that 
Gwen's jes' as likely to be named one as tother. 
My maw says that she don't hold to the notion 
that the Englishman took his own life, but that 
was what the coroner said — susanside — an' ac- 


THE HIKE 


243 


cordin’ to law we uns is bleeged to accept his 
verdict.” 

'H agree with your mother,” said Dr. Wright. 
‘Ht is more apt to have been vertigo that toppled 
the poor man over. That ringing in the head is 
so often accompanied with vertigo.” 

They carried the provisions around the moun- 
tain, out of sight of the gruesome spot, and under 
a mighty oak tree ate their very good luncheon. 


CHAPTER XVII. 


FIRST AID. 

‘Tt is Strange we haven't seen a single snake/’ 
said one of the visiting girls. 

‘'Thank goodness for it!" exclaimed another. 
‘T was almost afraid to come camping because of 
snakes." 

“We haven't seen any around the camp at all," 
Douglas assured them. 

Bill and Lewis exchanged sly glances, for the 
truth of the matter was they had killed several in 
the early days when they were breaking ground 
for the pavilion — ^had killed and kept mum on the 
subject. 

“Girls are just as afraid of dead snakes as 
alive ones, so let's keep dark about them," 
Lewis had said, and they had also sworn Josh to 
secrecy. 

“There is one thing to be remembered about 
snakes," said Dr. Wright, “most snakes, at least, 

244 


FIRST AID 


245 


that they are as afraid of you as you are of them 
and they are seldom the aggressors ; that is, they 
do not consider themselves so. They strike when 
they think that you have encroached on their 
trail. If you look carefully where you walk, 
there is no danger ever of being bitten by a snake, 
and very few snakes will come deliberately where 
you are. I will wager anything that Josh here 
has never stepped on a snake.'' 

'We uns done it onct but Maw lambasted we 
uns with a black snake whip fer not lookin' whar 
we uns trod, so's ain't never had no accident 
since. Maw, she said if the har of a dog was 
good fer the bite, that a black snake whip would 
jest about cure we uns fer most gittin' bit by a 
rattler." 

"Oh, he didn't bite you, then?" 

"Naw, 'cause we uns war jes up from the 
measles an' Maw had put some ole boots on we 
uns. Maw says that the best cure for snake bite 
is to have the measles an' wear ole boots so you 
uns don't git bit." 

"Very sound reasoning," laughed Dr. Wright. 


246 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


'Hn the mountains, top boots or leggins would 
cure all snake bites/' 

^^Helen wouldn’t wear her leggins,” declared 
Bobby, ’cause she said you couldn’t come 
attorney-generaling her about her clothes, and 
mustard don’t help cold gravy none, anyhow.” 

''Oh, Bobby !” gasped Helen. 

"So it won’t, Bobby,” said Dr. Wright, some- 
what mystified as to the hidden meaning of mus- 
tard and cold gravy but feeling sure that there 
was some significance in it. He did not interpret 
it as did Mrs. Bardell the cryptic notes from Mr. 
Pickwick concerning tomato sauce as being love 
messages, but well knew that they were more 
nearly proofs of dislike if not hate from Helen. 

"Nothing can help cold gravy in my opinion,” 
drawled Nan, "not even heating it up.” 

"How about cold shoulders ?” asked the doctor. 

"Or icy mits ?” 

"Or glacial reserve?” 

"Or chilling silence?” Suggestions from dif- 
ferent ones of the picnickers. 

"What will melt frigid replies?” 


FIRST AID 


247 


frozen glances?’’ 

“Hot air !” from Bill. “Melt anything.” And 
then he gave a laugh at his own wit that bid fair 
to dislodge the great rock so delicately balanced 
in the Devil’s Gorge. 

“Let’s go explore the Devil’s Gorge now !” sug- 
gested Helen, springing to her feet, forgetting all 
about her fatigue, only thankful for the foolish- 
ness that had been started by Nan to hide her 
sister’s embarrassment. What would Dr. Wright 
think of her? He must have understood very 
well what Bobby meant by attorney-generaling, 
if the mustard and cold gravy was a mystery. 

The girls held back when they looked down the 
frightful abyss so well named, but the spinster 
educators went on, determined to get geological 
specimens if they died for it, and Helen, in a 
spirit of bravado, leaped ahead of the exploring 
party and sprang down the rocks like a veritable 
mountain goat. Her cheeks were still glowing 
over the remarks of that enfant terrible, Bobby. 

“Be careful, Helen!” called Lewis Somerville, 
who had constituted himself squire of spinsters 


248 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


and was helping those intrepid geologists down 
the slippery rocks. Helen tossed her head at her 
cousin and went on in her mad descent, swinging 
from rock to rock with the occasional help of a 
scrub oak that had somehow gained foothold on 
the barren boulders. 

''Look out for snakes, Helen cried Douglas, 
who had turned back with the rest of the party. 

But Helen heeded nothing and seemed bent on 
reaching the lowest point of the chasm. It 
flashed across her mind that she was a little like 
the Englishman. He was trying to escape from 
the buzzing and roaring in his head while she was 
in a mad race with her conscience. Why should 
she be so unkind and sharp with Dr. Wright? 
She didn’t know. 

She could hear the people above talking and 
their voices seemed thin and far away, so deep 
had she penetrated into the gorge. 

"Jest a leetle below whar Miss Helen is stand- 
ing was whar they picked up the Englishman,” 
she could hear Josh’s peculiar mountain voice re- 
cite before the party moved off back toward the 


FIRST AID 


249 


temporary camp where they had had lunch- 
eon. The ladies on science bent, their squire, 
Dr. Wright and she were the only explorers 
left. 

‘'Right down there is where that poor man 
fell,’’ she said to herself. ‘T don’t believe it was 
suicide, either,” and then she blushed for agree- 
ing with Dr. Wright. “But it would be so easy to 
fall from any of these slippery crags. He might 
have been on the opposite cliff, which is certainly 
a precarious spot, and vertigo might have at- 
tacked him, and he might have gone over back- 
wards, clutching at the scrub oaks as he fell, and 
gone down, down — why, what is that hanging in 
the tree there?” 

Something was certainly caught in the 
branches of a dwarf tree that clung to the un- 
friendly rocks with determined roots — something 
that looked like a wallet, but she could not be 
sure. 

“Lewis!” she called, but Lewis was so taken 
up with hanging by his toes and reaching for a 
particularly rare specimen of fern that one of the 


250 


THE CAETEK GIELS 


dames wanted for her collection, that he did not 
hear her calling. 

‘'Will I do?'’ asked Dr. Wright from some- 
where above her. 

“Oh, no, I thank you. I don't want'anything.” 
And then the buzzing conscience started up and 
she said more cordially, “I see something hang- 
ing in a scrub oak over there that I am going to 
get/’ 

“Let me get it for you," and the young doctor 
started to swing himself down the cliff to the 
ledge where Helen was standing. 

Before he reached her, however, she had deter- 
mined to make the attempt herself. It was not 
much of a jump for one as athletic as Helen. It 
was several feet below where she was standing 
and the gorge narrowed at that point, making lit- 
tle more than a step across to the opposite ledge. 

She gave a flying leap and landed safely, 
clutching the scrub oak in whose branches the 
wallet was lodged. Dr. Wright reached the spot 
where she had been standing just as she touched 
the rock below. He could not help admiring her 


FIEST AID 


251 


grace and athletic figure as she made the jump, 
although his heart was sore at her persistent un- 
kindness to him. He did not want to find her 
attractive and determined to let this visit to the 
camp be his last. She seemed to think that he 
had courted the power of attorney that had been 
thrust upon him, or why should she have said 
whatever she had said that had caused Bobby’s 
prattling? It was thoroughly ungenerous of her 
and unkind and he for one was not going to place 
himself in a position to have to endure it. The 
other members of the family were so very nice to 
him that he did not relish letting the summer go 
by without visiting them again — and Bobby — 
dear little shover. He could but confess, how- 
ever, that their kindness was outweighed in his 
heart by Helen’s unkindness, and he determined 
to stay away. 

A second after Helen had made her triumphant 
leap, she gave a sharp cry. Dr. Wright started 
toward her and his keen gaze saw an ugly snake 
gliding away across the rocks, disappearing in a 


crevice. 


252 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


‘'My God, Helen ! Did he bite you V No bit- 
terness now was in the young man's heart as he 
jumped the chasm and landed by Helen's side, 
just as she sank trembling to the ground. 

She said afterwards it was not because it hurt 
so much, only for a moment was the pain intense, 
but she felt a kind of horror as though the poison 
had penetrated her very soul. She was filled 
with fear that could only have been equalled by 
Susan's dread of hants. 

“Where is it?" the doctor questioned with a 
voice of such sympathy and tenderness that 
Helen's thoughts went back to a time in her child- 
hood when she had her tonsils removed. When 
she came from under the anesthetic, her father 
was holding her hand and he spoke to her in just 
such a tone. 

“My heel ! Just above the shoe !" she gasped. 

“Take off your shoe and stocking as quick as 
you can." 

She obeyed without question and Dr. Wright, 
with a deftness surprising in a man, twisted a 
handkerchief around her ankle just above the in- 


FIEST AID 


253 


jured spot, and so tightly did he bind it, that it 
was all Helen could do to keep from crying out. 
know it hurts, but we have to bear it.” 

His ‘Ve” made her feel in some way that it 
hurt him, too. But what was he doing? With- 
out a word he had knelt and had his mouth to 
the wound and was sucking out the poison. 

Helen hid her face in her hands. It took only 
a moment and then the kind voice said : ^^Now we 
have a little more to stand.” He quickly opened 
his miniature case and, handing her a tiny phial, 
told her to take two of the pellets, which she did, 
while he got out a small hard alcohol lamp and 
lighted it. Then, producing the proper instru- 
ments from the wonderful case, he proceeded to 
cauterize the wound. Helen gritted her teeth 
and made not one murmur. 

^Wour father’s own daughter,” was all he said 
as he put up his instruments, but that was as mu- 
sic in the ears of Helen. He then produced a 
small bottle from another pocket and washed out 
his own mouth with a thoroughness that ex- 
plained his exceedingly perfect teeth. 


254 THE CARTER GIRLS 

‘'The wound is a very slight one and I truly 
believe you will have absolutely no trouble, but 
you must take every precaution and be very quiet 
for a day or so. Lewis and I together will carry 
you up to Josephus. A snake bite can be of little 
consequence if it is taken hold of immediately. 
Can you stand the ligature a little tighter?’' 

“Ye— s!” 

“Ah, I see it is tight enough. You can put 
your stocking on again, but first I must make as- 
surance doubly sure and cut out a great hole 
where the rascal attacked you. There might be 
poison in it.” He deftly bandaged the injured 
ankle with a roll of gauze he produced from yet 
another pocket, first treating the wound with 
iodine. “I wish I had some permanganate of 
potash but I fancy the work is already done and 
the iodine will be all right. He got you on the 
Achilles tendon. I wonder if it is your only vul- 
nerable spot, too.” 

“No, it is not. I am full of vulnerable spots! 
Oh, Dr. Wright, I am not nearly so mean as I 
seem. I am so sorry I was so rude to you — I — I 


FIEST AID 


255 


am going to be better. I am sorry I did not wear 
the leggins and I am sorry I did not look where 
I was stepping — I am sorry I jumped over the 
gorge when I saw you coming. I just did it to 
irritate you. I am sorry to have caused you all 
this trouble and I am so grateful to you that I can 

hardly ’’ but here Helen actually blubbered, 

something that she never did. 

''Why, you poor little girl ! I haven’t a doubt 
that I have been as horrid as you have thought 
I was and dictatorial and interfering and mean — 
and everything. Please forgive me and suppose 
we just be the good friends that somehow I be- 
lieve we were cut out to be, you and Bobby and 
I and he took the girl’s hand in his and patted 
it gently while she wept on. 

"Can’t you stop crying, honey ?” 

"I be — be — believe I could if I had a handker- 
chief, but I’ve lost mine.” 

"And mine is made into a ligature. Would a 
few yards of gauze help any?” And then they 
both laughed while he unwound the gauze. 

All of this had taken but a few minutes and 


256 THE CARTER GIRLS 

Lewis and the scientific devotees had no idea 
that anything so terrifying as a snake bite was 
going on. They came in view just as Helen 
dried her eyes on the few yards of gauze. 

‘‘Hello! What’s up r 

“Oh, Lewis, a snake bit me !” 

“Gee! A rattler?” 

Dr. Wright held up a warning finger behind 
Helen’s back. 

“He got out of the way so fast we did not get 
a good look at him, but it is not a bad bite, and 
everything has been done that could be done, and 
now Miss Helen is going to take one more of 
these little green pellets and you and I are going 
to carry her up to Josephus.” 

The ladies were very solicitous and anxious to 
do anything in their power, but they were calm 
and quiet and Helen thanked her stars that the 
rest of the party had gone back and not ventured 
so far into the gorge. 

“It would have been awful to have them buzz- 
ing all around me, yelling and screaming and 
squealing,” she said to herself, and then the 


FIEST AID 


257 


thought came to her of the horror all the girls had 
of snakes and the consternation her accident 
would cause among the week-enders. But why 
need they know ? It was her own fault that she 
had been bitten, and such a thing need never hap- 
pen again if only proper precautions were taken, 
such as leggins and looking where you stepped 
and keeping away from the Devil’s Gorge, where 
snakes were sure to abound. 

‘‘Dr. Wright, do you think it would be possible 
to keep this thing perfectly quiet? I am so 
afraid that my being bitten by a snake would give 
our camp such a bad name that it would be a fail- 
ure from now on.” 

“Of course it could be kept quiet. What do 
you think, Somerville?” 

“Me! Why, I’m game to keep my mouth 
shut.” 

“We agree with you perfectly. Miss Carter, 
and will say nothing at all in regard to the acci- 
dent,” the spinsters assured her, and they looked 
so kind and sensible that Helen’s heart was 
warmed to them and she wondered that she had 


258 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


not noticed before what very intelligent, good 
faces both of them had. 

''All right,’’ said Dr. Wright, "it is perfectly 
ethical for a physician to keep his patient’s mal- 
ady to himself. Miss Helen Carter is suffering 
from an injury to her ankle. If the inquisitive 
choose to make of it a sprain it is their own af- 
fair. Now, Lewis, how shall we manage? It 
will be pretty awkward for us to make a basket 
of our hands going up this cliff,” and with that 
he stooped and picked Helen up in his arms, and 
with no more exertion than if she had been 
Bobby, he made his way up the mountain. 

"Would it hurt me to walk? I can’t bear to be 
so much trouble.” 

"It is best to keep very quiet. I am pretty sure 
there is going to be no trouble, but I must have 
you behave just exactly as though there was.” 

"Lewis, you get Douglas off by herself and let 
her know what it was, but wait until we are back 
in camp. Tell her so she won’t be scared, and let 
her know it is all right before you let her know 
what it is.” 



“Would it hurt me to walk? I can’t bear to be so much 

trouble ” — Page 258 





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I. 



FIRST AID 


259 


‘T believe the rattlesnake is called crotalus hor- 
ridus/’ said one of the wise ladies. 

Dr. Wright wished she would stop talking 
about snakes and especially rattlers, as he wanted 
to get Helen’s mind off the terrifying occurrence. 

‘We are not sure this was a rattlesnake,” he 
said. 

‘T think it was,” she whispered to him. ‘T re- 
member as I jumped I heard something that 
sounded like dry leaves.” Did the young man 
hold her closer to him or was it just a fancy on 
her part? 

“It knocks me all up to think about it,” he mut- 
tered. “I am glad, so glad I followed you.” 

“I am, too !” 

A wave of crimson flooded the young man’s 
face. He didn’t know why, but his blood was 
singing in his veins and his breath came quickly. 
If it had not been for the presence of the respect- 
able spinsters, he was sure he would have had to 
kiss that piquant face so close to his. 

“Come on. Doc, my time now to take up the 
white man’s burden. Helen is no featherweight 


260 


THE CAETEK GIELS 


and you are red in the face and panting from 
carrying her this far/’ 

^'Not a bit of it !” and Dr. Wright held on to his 
burden while Lewis endeavored to relieve him. 

‘Well, let’s cut the baby in two, like my Aunt’s 
favorite character in history.” 

‘Tf I give up, it will be for the same reason 
the woman in the Bible did,” laughed Dr. Wright. 
“You remember it was the woman who had the 
right who gave up?” 

The spinsters were still talking about the hab- 
its and customs of the horridus crotalus. 

“They know so much and keep piling on so much 
more, I fancy if they didn’t give out some of their 
learning, they would bust,” whispered Lewis, as 
he grasped his cousin in a bear hug and started 
to finish the journey to the temporary camp. 

“Do you remember a limerick, I think Oliver 
Hereford’s?” asked Helen: 

“ ‘There was once a homo teetotalus 
Who stepped on a horridus crotalus, 

“Hie !” davit in pain, 

“I’ve got ’em again !” 

Ejacit this homo teetotalus.’ ” 


CHAPTER XVIII. 


DIAGNOSIS. 

There was a great outcry from the party when 
Helen appeared in the arms of Lewis with an os- 
tentatious bandage on her ankle, so that the ver- 
dict of a sprain was established without the at- 
tending physician’s having to perjure himself 
with a false diagnosis. 

Helen was looking very pale and tired, and 
thankful indeed was she for the bony back of 
Josephus, that was destined to bear her home. 
She and Bobby both found room on the patient 
old mule, who started off with his usual bird-like 
spirit, seemingly proud of his fair burden. 

'T am afraid we are too much for Josephus,” 
Helen said to Josh. 

‘'Naw’m ! Josephus is proud to tote the likes of 
you allses. He is jes’ a been tellin’ we uns that 
he is thankful his short leg is up the mounting so 

Miss Helen will ride mo’ easy like.” 

261 


262 ' 


THE CAETEK GIRLS 


'Well, ril give him some sugar when we get 
home,” laughed Helen. 

Dr. Wright kept close by the side of the mule 
wherever the trail permitted and once or twice 
held out his hand to feel the pulse of the patient. 
That is the danger of snake bite: that the pulse 
may become feeble. The old treatment of 
whisky, drunk in large quantities, is now thought 
to have been the cause of more deaths from snake 
bites than the bites themselves. Persons unac- 
customed to liquor could not stand the large doses 
that were poured down them by well-meaning 
friends. The present day treatment is: strych- 
nia to keep up the pulse and the thorough burning 
out of the wound, after it has been sucked by a 
healthy mouth. 

A sprained ankle is nothing to dampen the spir- 
its of youth and so the crowd went back as gaily 
as it came. Helen could not help thinking how 
differently they would have behaved had they 
known the true inwardness of her having to ride 
on the back of the mule that reminded her of 
nothing so much as a saw-horse. Had they un- 


THE DIAGNOSIS 


263 


der stood that a rattlesnake had taken a nip out of 
her tendon Achilles, it would have put an end to 
their cheerfulness and also an end to their week- 
end boarders if she was not mistaken. 

‘‘Suppose it is going to do me as it did old 
Uncle Snake-bit Peter we used to see up at 
Wytheville,’’ she said to herself, “with his leg all 
drawn up and shrivelled.’' She got giddy at the 
thought and then it was that Dr. Wright, who 
seemed to know exactly what was in her mind, 
put out his hand and felt her pulse and then gave 
her another tiny pellet. He looked so good and 
so dependable and seemed so confident that all 
was going well with her, she felt she must per- 
force have faith in him. 

“ ‘I will look unto the hills from whence com- 
eth my help,’ ” came to her lips, and she whis- 
pered the text softly. 

“What is it?” 

“Nothing,” she blushed, “I was talking to my^ 
self.” 

“You were blowing down my neck,” said 
Bobby, who was perched in front of her. “If 


264 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


you were whiskering to me, I didnT hear what 
you said. ’Tain't perlite to whisker in company, 
and, ’sides, I always tell my ’ployer what you say 
’bout him, anyhow.” 

Helen was silent. Would she ever be able to 
live down all the unkind things she had said about 
Dr. Wright? How could he be so nice to her? 
Of course, she understood that he had done what 
any physician would have done in treating the 
wound, although he might have called Lewis 
Somerville to do the extremely objectionable part 
of the process of cleaning the bite. Since Lewis 
was a cousin and in the mountains as protector to 
her and her sisters, it might have been up to him 
to render first aid, since the tendon Achilles is so 
situated that it would take a contortionist to ad- 
minister treatment to oneself. If Dr. Wright 
had only done his duty as laid down in the code of 
medical ethics, he certainly had a wonderfully 
pleasing sick room manner and his patients must 
one and all give him praise for sympathy and 
understanding. 

‘^Gwen done promised me’n Josh to have some 


THE DIAGNOSIS 


265 


gingerbread made by the time we gits back from 
hiking/’ broke in Bobby. is a-hopin’ that all 
this joltin’ is gonter shake down my lunch some, 
’cause sho’s you’s born I don’t want what I done 
et. If Josephus stumbles agin I reckon my stom- 
ick will growl an’ then I’m most sho’ I kin hole a 
leetle mo’ if it’s gingerbread. Gwen kin make 
the bes’es’ an’ sof’es’ an’ blackes’ gingerbread 
what I ever et.” 

At the mention of Gwen, Helen’s thoughts 
went back to the Devil’s Gorge where her father 
had met such a tragic end, and the wallet she had 
seen in the branches of the scrub oak tree flashed 
in her mind’s eye. 

‘^The wallet! The wallet! We forgot to get it 
out of the tree,” she exclaimed. 

‘'By Jove ! So we did ! Somehow, other things 
seemed more important.” 

'T wonder what it was. It might have been in 
the Englishman’s pocket, and when he fell down 
the cliff, it might have got caught in the branches 
of the scrub oak. I wish I knew.” 

Camp looked very peaceful and homelike when 


266 


THE CARTEK GIRLS 


the hikers returned. The card players were still 
at it and seemed all unconscious of the lengthen- 
ing shadows. Mrs. Tate took occasion while she 
was dummy to embrace her offspring and to sug- 
gest that she put witchhazel on her sunburned 
countenance. The bachelor uncle played through 
his no trump hand before he could assure himself 
of his niece’s safety. Miss Lizzie Somerville had 
felt no uneasiness about the crowd, because was 
not her beloved Lewis taking care of them ? She 
was somewhat concerned when she learned that 
her favorite among the girls had sprained her 
ankle but thanked her stars that it was only a 
sprain and not a snake bite or something terrible. 

‘T have a dread of snakes,” she said as she 
stood over Helen in the tent where Dr. Wright 
had tenderly borne her, and where she lay on her 
cot, thankful indeed to be off the sharp back of 
Josephus and at rest on what was not exactly a 
luxurious bed but very comfortable to her tired 
bones. 'Tt was a blessing that Dr. Wright was 
with you and could bind up your ankle so nicely. 
Does it pain you much, child ?” 


THE DIAGNOSIS 


267 


‘'No’m, not much ! Not at all right now.” 

‘Well, as I said before, I am thankful it was 
not a snake bite as I was sure none of you had 
carried whisky with you, and that is the only 
thing to use when a snake bites you, so I have 
always been told. No matter what your habits 
or convictions are, you must drink whisky if a 
snake bites you. Am I not right, doctor?” 

‘Well, whisky is better than nothing, but there 
are things that are better than whisky,” smiled 
the young man, wishing that Miss Somerville 
would get away from the painful subject and 
realizing more than ever how wise Helen had 
been to conceal the real cause of her being out of 
the running. “Strychnia is the treatment of 
modern science, as it is more efficacious than 
whisky to keep up the pulse.” He felt Helen's 
pulse while he was talking, which seemed to Miss 
Somerville rather unnecessary concern for a 
sprained ankle, and she went off murmuring to 
herself: “ ‘There be three things which are too 
wonderful for me, yea four, which I know not: 
The way of an eagle in the air, the way of a ser- 


268 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


pent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst 
of the sea, and the way of a man with a maid/ 

Douglas came in, white and scared. Lewis 
had broken the news to her as gently as possible, 
but the sound of snake bite was a terrible one to 
her young ears. She, too, remembered old Uncle 
Snake-bit Peter and his withered limb. 

‘'Helen, Helen she cried and burst into tears. 

“Why, Douglas, buck up! Dr. Wright says I 
am doing splendidly and there is nothing to fear. 
He did everything that could be done, and be- 
cause he was right on the spot, it was attended to 
so quickly that the poison could not get into my 
system. I feel fine, and mean to be up a great 
deal sooner than I would if it had been just a 
common sprain. We must keep it dark, though, 
and not let a soul know it is anything but what 
they think it is.’' 

Douglas was reassured by the calm confidence 
of the doctor and relieved, indeed, to see that 
Helen was meaning to obey him in everything. 

“She had better stay perfectly quiet for several 
days just to be sure, and I will treat the poor heel 


THE DIAGNOSIS 269 

where I had to cauterize it. That will, of course, 
be sore for a while.” 

''All right,” said Helen with unaccustomed 
meekness, "but I did think I might get up to- 
morrow. But IT be good as I want to get well, 
perfectly well, so I can go to the Devil’s Gorge 
again and get the wallet.” 

"But would you venture there again?” 

"Certainly ! But next time I’ll wear high shoes 
and leggins and look where I step. I think I de- 
serve some of Aunt Mandy’s black snake whip as 
a punishment. I do wish I knew what was in 
that wallet — if it was a wallet.” 

The doctor smiled and left the tent to the sis- 
ters, who clung to each other with all the affection 
they had. They realized what they meant to one 
another more than they ever had before, now that 
this thing had occurred that might have proved 
very serious. 

"We mustn’t let a soul know what the trouble 
is, Douglas. Of course, you realize it would send 
our week-end boarders anywhere but to the 
mountains.” 


270 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


''Yes, I see it would, just the way they all talk 
about snakes. I tell you one thing, though — we 
must make leggins obligatory for hikers. Maybe 
it would be well to order a few extra pair when 
we order the blankets for those persons, like Tillie 
Wingo, who will not do what they are told.’’ 

"I believe so, too. And now, honey, please get 
Gwen to bring me something very simple for my 
supper. I believe I’ll join the bread and milk club 
to-night and not try to eat anything heavy. I 
feel so sleepy I can hardly keep my eyes open. I 
do hope I am not going to dream about snakes. 
I’d sleep better if I only knew what was in the 
wallet I saw hanging in the tree.” 


CHAPTER XIX. 


THE) QUEST. 

Perhaps Helen might have slept better had she 
known what was in the wallet, but it would have 
been difficult. Dr. Wright, accompanied by 
Douglas, crept silently into the tent just before 
the camp broke up for the night and found her 
pulse absolutely normal. His patient was sleep- 
ing so peacefully that he sought his hammock 
thoroughly contented with the treatment he had 
administered in the first case of snake bite that 
he had met in his practice. 

Dawn was in the neighborhood of four o’clock. 
It was so still it seemed impossible that thirty 
persons were camping on that mountain side. The 
night noises had ceased. Katy-dids and tree- 
frogs, who had been making as much clatter as 
though they had been getting out a morning pa- 
per, had gone home to rest until it should be time 

to commence on the next edition. 

271 


272 


THE CARTEK GIRLS 


This lull between night and morning lasted 
only a few moments and then there was “the ear- 
liest pipe of half-awakened birds.’’ At the first 
sleepy note, Dr. Wright stirred in the hammock 
which he had stretched tightly between two giant 
pines a little way from the camp. He had told 
himself he was to awake at dawn, and now that 
he had done it, what was it all about? He lay 
still for a few moments drowsily drinking in the 
beauties of the dawn. A mocking bird had con- 
stituted himself waker-up of the bird kingdom 
since he could speak all languages. He now be- 
gan to call the different bird notes and was sleep- 
ily answered from bush and tree. When he felt 
that a sufficient number was awake to make it 
worth his while, he burst into a great hymn of 
praise and thanksgiving; at least that was what 
it seemed to the young doctor, the only human 
being awake on that mountain side. 

“I’d like to join you, old fellow. I’m so thankful 
that Helen is safe,” and then he remembered why 
he had set himself the task of waking at dawn. 

He slid from his hammock and in a short while 


THE QUEST 273 

was taking the trail of the day before, back to 
the DeviFs Gorge. It seemed but a short walk 
to the athletic young man as he swung his long 
legs, delighting in the exercise. He reached the 
gorge in much less than half the time it had taken 
the hikers of yesterday. 

The morning light was clear and luminous but 
the gorge was as gruesome as ever. Sun light 
never penetrated its gloom, and Dr. Wright no- 
ticed that no birds seemed to sing there. He let 
himself carefully down the cliff, practicing what 
he had preached and looking where he stepped. 
In the exact spot where Helen had jumped, he 
saw a snake coiled as though waiting for another 
pretty little gray shoe to come his way. 

"Tt may not be the same snake,’’ muttered the 
young man, ‘Tut I am going to presume it is 
and kill him if I can.” 

He was standing on the ledge where Helen had 
been when she called to Lewis Somerville, just 
before the fatal leap. The wallet was in plain 
view, caught in a crotch of the scrub oak, and the 
hateful snake was curled up directly under the 


274 


THE CAKTER GIRLS 


tree as though put there by some evil magician 
to guard a secret treasure. 

‘‘You needn’t look at me with your wicked eyes. 
I am going to kill you if I can, and why, I don’t 
know, because I believe in a way you have done 
me a pretty good turn. Helen trusts me now, at 
least !” 

He raised a great bowlder over his head and 
with a sure aim hurled it down on the serpent, 
who was even then making his strange rattle like 
dry leaves in the wind. 

“That was your swan song, old boy,” and so 
it was. The snake was crushed by the blow, only 
his tail sticking out, twitching feebly, the rattle 
vibrating slowly, making a faint lonesome sound. 

“I think I’ll take this for a souvenir!” The 
doctor got out one of his ever ready instruments 
and deftly extracted the rattle from the now 
harmless reptile. “Some day we may laugh over 
this,” but I don’t know why this made him blush 
as it did, there all by himself in the Devil’s 
Gorge. 

The rattle in his pocket, he started back up the 


THE QUEST 27 o 

cliff, when he suddenly remembered his quest. 
‘^Well, by Jove, it looks as though that mysterious 
wallet was destined to be left in the branches of 
the dwarf oak!'’ he exclaimed, as he made his 
way back down to the spot and this time got the 
leather wallet It was very tightly wedged into 
the tree, in fact, it had become incorporated, as 
it were, into the growth of the tree, and one of 
the gnarled and twisted limbs had to be cut away 
before he could free the object of his morning 
walk. 

It was a bulky pocket-book, made of alligator 
skin which, because of its toughness, had evi- 
dently been able to withstand the weather that 
Dr. Wright felt sure it must have had to undergo 
for years, judging by the way the branches of 
the tree had grown around it. 

'T won’t open it now, but will take it to Helen. 
It was her find and I am not going to jump her 
claim.” 

The camp was stirring when he returned. 
Much shouting from the bath-house assured him 
that the boys were undergoing a shower of the 


276 


THE CAETEK GIRLS 


freezing mountain water. He waited until the 
last glowing, damp-haired youth filed out and 
then took a sprinkle himself, which refreshed him 
greatly but left him so hungry that the delight- 
ful odors from the open air kitchen almost mad- 
dened him. Roe herring he was sure of, — that 
is always unmistakable; hot rolls were holding 
their own in the riot of smells ; bacon was assert- 
ing itself; there was a burnt sugar effect that 
must mean fried June apples; and threading its 
way through the symphony of fragrance and ris- 
ing supreme over all was a coffee motive. 

‘'Do you blame any one for stealing food when 
he is hungry?” he asked Gwen, whom he found 
in the pavilion setting the tables. “I don’t.” 

“You have been up a long time, sir. I saw 
you a little after four on the trail near Aunt 
Mandy’s.” 

“Were you up then?” 

“Oh, yes, sir. I always get up early to milk 
and put the cabin in order before I come over 
here. It will be a little while before breakfast. 
Shall I get you a cup of coffee now?” 


THE QUEST 


277 


‘‘That would be very kind of you ! I am fam- 
ished, and perhaps a cup of coffee would keep 
me from disgracing myself when breakfast i^ 
ready/' 

Gwen had changed a great deal in the few 
weeks since she had come so shyly from behind 
the bowlder to offer herself as factotum to Lewis 
and Bill. She still had the modest demeanor, but 
had lost her extreme shyness and also much of 
her primness. She was now a more natural girl 
of fourteen, thanks to Nan and Lucy, who had 
tried to make her feel at home with them. 
Shoes and stockings had helped her to recover 
from her timidity. She had always had an idea 
that people were looking at her bare feet. Over 
her skimpy little dress she now wore a bungalow 
apron, which was vastly becoming to her Puritan 
type of beauty. The first money she made had 
been spent on shoes and aprons. Helen had 
wanted to present her with these things, but 
Gwen and Josh were alike in wanting nothing 
they had not honestly earned. 

As the girl came towards the doctor, bearing 


278 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


in her steady little brown hands a tray with a 
smoking cup of coffee and a hot buttered roll, 
just to tide him over until breakfast, he thought 
he had never seen a more attractive child. 

‘‘And it wasn’t because she was feeding me, 
either,” he said to Helen later on, “but because 
she had such a fine upstanding look to her and 
because her hand was so capable and steady and 
her gaze so open and honest. No great lady, 
trained in the social graces, could have handed 
one a cup of coffee with more assurance and 
ease of manner.” 

“Miss Helen was asking for you,” said Gwen, 
as she put down the delectable tray. 

“Oh, is she all right?” and the physician 
jumped up, ready to leave his untasted food if 
he were needed. 

“Oh, yes, she is as well as can be, and when I 
took her some coffee early this morning, she told 
me she had slept so well and was famished for 
food. I am going to straighten up her tent just 
as soon as the girls are out of it, so you can go 
in to see her. I told her I had seen you tak- 


THE QUEST 279 

ing a walk at four o’clock. She wants to see 
you.” 

wonder if heavenly messengers wear blue 
aprons and tennis shoes,” the young man said 
to himself, ‘‘because if they do, I am sure Gwen 
is one of them.” He patted his breast pocket to 
make sure the bulky wallet was there, hoping 
it held in some way good for the little English 
girl but determined to say nothing about it until 
Helen had her first peep. 

“Can it be possible that I am falling in love 
with Helen?” he muttered. “She is not more 
than seventeen, and, besides, it was only yester- 
day that I determined never to put myself in the 
way of being insulted by her again so long as I 
should live. Here I am starving to death (this 
roll and coffee will be only a drop in the bucket 
of my great appetite) and still I’d rather go see 
her than eat the breakfast I can smell cooking. 
I promised the father and mother to look after 
the children while they were taking my prescrip- 
tion, and this is a fine way to do it: to fall in 
love with one of them! Besides, Helen is not a 


280 


THE CARTEK GIRLS 


bit prettier than Douglas, not so clever as Nan, 
and so spoiled that she can be certainly very dis- 
agreeable, but still — still — she is Helen — and 
Bobby loves her best of all. Anyhow, I think 
ril eat my breakfast first before I go to her, since 
she does not need my professional services.’’ 

never see folks eat like these here week- 
enders,” declared Oscar, as breakfast progressed 
and he came to the kitchen for more hot rolls. He 
also brought directions from Douglas for Susan 
to scramble a dish of eggs for some of the late 
comers who found nothing but herring tails for 
their portion of a dish ever dear to the heart of 
all Virginians. 

‘'I don’t see how the young ladies ’spects to 
clar nothin’ out’n their ventur’some if’n all the 
payin’ guests eats ekal to these here,” said Susan, 
as she took another pan of rolls out of the oven 
and put a skillet on the stove to get hot for the 
eggs. ‘Ts done been to many springs an’ sich 
with Mis Carter when I was a-nussin’ of Bobby 
an’ I never yet seed any of the pr’ietors knock 
up a dish er eggs fer no sleepy haids. Fus’ come. 


THE QUEST 381 

fus’ serve, an’ las’ come satisfy they selves with 
herrin’ tails an’ coffee drugs. Miss Gwen done 
made three pots er coffee already an’ she mought 
jes’ as well be pourin’ it down the bottomless pit 
fer all the showin’ it’s done made. If’n these 
folks is gonter eat all mornin’, I’d like ter know 
whin we’s ter git the dishes washed.” 

‘Well, dey won’t need no scrapin’,” laughed 
Oscar, as he bore away the plates heaped with 
crusty turnovers. ‘T been a-bettin’ on Mr. Bill 
Tinsley, but looks lak Dr. Wright kin hole his 
own with the bes’ of them.” 

“One thing sho,” grumbled Susan, who had the 
customary bad humor of the Sunday morning 
cook, “th’ain’t no use’n a clock up’n in this here 
camp. Whin you gits through with breakfast, 
it’s time ter begin dinner.” 


CHAPTER XX. 


the: watte:t. 

''Did you sleep 

"Like a top!’’ 

"Bad dreams?” and Dr. Wright felt the pulse 
of the healthy looking patient, who, with the help 
of Gwen, had donned a very becoming boudoir 
cap and negligee, two articles of clothing that she 
had brought to camp in spite of the jeerings of 
her sisters, who did not see how they could be 
used. Helen had not had an illness since she was 
a child and had her tonsils out, and certainly a 
camp was no place to sport a filmy lace cap and 
a negligee of pale blue silk and lace. 

'‘It is almost worth while having a sn — having 

a sprained ankle just to prove to my sisters that 

I was wise in bringing this cap and sacque,” she 

had laughingly told Gwen, who was assisting her. 

"I bet snake bite is going to come popping out 
282 


THE WALLET 


283 


of my mouth, willy nilly,’' she said to herself, 
almost gave it away that time.” 

Gwen, who loved pretty things and scented 
from afar the admiration Dr. Wright was begin- 
ning to hold for Helen, considered it very wise 
to have brought the dainty garments. She could 
not help thinking, with something akin to bitter- 
ness, of her own yellow cotton night gowns that 
Aunt Mandy considered superfluous articles of 
clothing; and of the coarse, gray flannel bed- 
sacque she had worn the summer before when 
she had caught the measles from Josh; and of 
how she must have looked when the old country 
doctor came to see her. 

The tent was tidy and sweet when George 
Wright entered to see how his patient fared. 
Gwxn had spread the steamer rugs over the cots 
and had even placed a bunch of honeysuckle on 
the little table at Helen's bedside. She had had 
to purloin the table from Miss Somerville's cabin, 
but that lady was willing to give up more than a 
table for her favorite young cousin. 

Helen blushed a little when the young man 


284 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


asked her if she had had any bad dreams. The 
fact was she had had very pleasant dreams in 
which he had largely figured. She had dreamed 
that Josephus had turned into Pegasus and that, 
as she flew along on his shapely back, she had 
met Dr. Wright floating by on a white cloud and 
he had wanted to feel her pulse. She had put 
out her hand and as he felt her pulse, he had 
jumped from the white cloud square onto the 
back of Pegasus, and together they rode through 
the air, the winged horse looking kindly on them 
with much the benevolent expression of Josephus. 

‘‘No, my dreams were pleasant,’’ she smiled. 

Dr. Wright certainly took a long time to feel 
any one’s pulse, but the truth was that he had 
forgotten to count, so taken up he was with the 
fact that pale blue was quite as becoming to Helen 
as gray with a dash of scarlet. I think if he 
had felt his own pulse, he would have been as- 
tonished at how far from normal his heart beats 
were at that moment. 

‘T have brought you the wallet from the Devil’s 
Gorge. Here it is for you to open !” 


THE WALLET 


285 


^'Oh, Dr. Wright! Is that where you were 
going when Gwen saw you so early this morn- 
ing ?’’ 

‘Wes!’’ 

“I think you are very good to take that tramp 
for Gwen,” she said, taking the bulky wallet in 
her hand. 

“I didn’t take it for Gwen, but for you.” Gwen 
had left the tent for a moment. 

“But you would have done it for Gwen, I am 
sure.” 

“Yes, of course, but perhaps not on an empty 
stomach,” laughed the doctor. “But why don’t 
you open the pocketbook?” 

“Because it is Gwen’s! She must be the one 
to open it.” 

“But you are not sure it is hers. I brought it 
for you to have the pleasure of opening it.” 

“Yes, I am sure it is hers, and I’d take more 
pleasure in seeing her open it than doing it my- 
self.” 

Just then Gwen returned with a pitcher of 
fresh water. Helen held up the wallet and said : 


286 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


'^Did you ever see this before?'^ 

Gwen turned pale and her steady little hands, 
that could usually carry a brimming cup of coffee 
safely to its destination without once slopping 
over, shook so that she spilled the water from 
the pitcher. 

^^Oh, Miss Helen! Where did you find it?’’ 

‘^Never mind now where we found it! You 
open it and see if you can identify it,” said Helen 
kindly. She realized that Gwen was to have ex- 
citement enough in opening this wallet of her 
father’s, lost as it had been for five years, with- 
out having to picture, as she would surely do, 
his death, the fall from the cliff and this pocket- 
book slipping from his coat and lodging in the 
tree. 

The wallet was evidently an expensive one: 
alligator skin lined with Russian leather. The 
silver clasp was rusty and Gwen’s trembling 
hands could hardly force the sliding catch, but 
Helen motioned for Dr. Wright not to assist her. 
She felt, somehow, that the girl would rather 
do it all herself. They were silent while the 



They were silent while the little English girl fumbled the 
lock — Page 287 



J r 



THE WALLET 


287 


little English girl fumbled the lock and finally 
sprung it. The wallet was stuifed full of papers 
and letters. In one compartment was some sil- 
ver, several gold pieces and some English coins. 
The papers were yellow with age, but so stout 
was the alligator skin that the many rains that 
must have fallen during the five years the wallet 
had been wedged in that scrub oak’s branches, 
had not wet them nor defaced them. 

''Be very careful, Gwen, there may be all kinds 
of precious documents in there,” exclaimed 
Helen, as some of the papers floated to the 
floor of the tent and some fluttered to her own 
cot. 

Gwen had sunk to the floor in a little heap and 
was sobbing. 

"I can remember so well how my father used 
to open up this pocketbook and pore over these 
letters. I was never allowed to touch it. He 
kept his money in it and receipts and things.” 

"Look, here is a receipt for one thousand dol- 
lars in cash payment for land !” exclaimed Helen, 
as a yellow slip of paper fell on her coverlet. 


288 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


The paper was written in a bold black hand so 
that any one might read it : 

Received payment from St. John Brownell for 
lOO acres of land at Greendale, Albemarle 
County, Va. $i,ooo in cash. 

(Signed) Abn^r D^an. 

The signature was in violet ink and very shaky. 
Helen recognized it as old Dean’s writing, as 
when he sent up any produce to the camp from 
his store at Greendale, it had been her duty to 
go over the bill which invariably accompanied 
the goods. 

‘Why, Gwen, Gwen! That old wretch has 
cheated you out of your land ! Do you know, he 
handed over to Father, for money he owed him, 
land that did not belong to him, and this minute 
our camp is built on your property ?” Helen was 
very much excited, and as for Gwen, — she was 
pale and trembling. “I’d like to get up out of 
this bed and go horse-whip him ” 

“Please, can I do it for you?” from the doctor. 
“But wouldn’t it be better to get a lawyer to 


THE WALLET 


289 


take the matter up and have the thing legally 
adjusted?’' 

‘We-e-ll, ye-s! Maybe But I’d certainly 

like to make that old man suffer some. Wouldn’t 
you, Gwen?” But the little English girl was so 
busy sorting the papers that had fallen from 
her father’s old wallet that she did not hear. 

''What is that in the back of the pocketbook 
where the other fastening is?” asked the doc- 
tor. 

"Money and more money! Why, Gwen, look 
at the bills!” 

Helen was right. In a neat and orderly man- 
ner in yet another closed compartment of the 
wallet were placed greenbacks and yellowbacks 
of high denominations. The girls feverishly 
counted out $1,500. 

"No wonder it was so fat! We had better 
not say anything about having all this money 
in camp. It ought to be in the bank, Gwen, as 
it might be stolen from you. Dr. Wright will 
deposit it for you in Richmond and you can draw 
on it as you need.” 


290 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


Gwen handed over the bills to the young man 
without a moment’s delay. 

''Wait now, let’s count it again to make sure, 
and I will give you a receipt for the amount.” 

"Oh, that’s not necessary, is it. Miss Helen?” 

"Certainly not!” And then Helen blushed to 
think how short a time had elapsed since she had 
expressed all kinds of doubts about the honesty 
of this man, because, forsooth, he had been given 
power of attorney over a paltry $83.59! Here 
she was advising this little mountain waif to 
hand over to Dr. Wright what seemed to them a 
large fortune without even a receipt. 

George Wright smiled and quietly wrote a re- 
ceipt for the amount. 

"It would be safer to let me carry this money 
for you because it might get out that you have 
it, and it would be easier to get it from you than 
me. I will deposit it at the Virginia Trust Co. 
in Richmond, and will send you the bank book 
immediately. You can invest it or not as you 
see fit. It would bring in forty-five dollars a 
year if you put it in the savings bank.” 


THE WALLET 


291 


''Oh, that would be enough for me to go to 
school on and even be a boarder at school ! But 
I want some of it to buy a new mule for Aunt 
Mandy. Josephus is so old and feeble/’ 

"You hfid better not tell Josh you think so,” 
laughed the doctor. "But will you be contented, 
child, just to stay on in the mountains for the 
rest of your life?” 

"This is the only home I have. Where else 
can I go ?” 

"You can go wherever we are,” cried Helen 
impulsively, and Dr. Wright’s admiration for her 
was increased if possible. 

"Oh, Miss Helen, you are so good! But 
Aunt Mandy needs me and maybe if I stay 
here I can make Josh wash, even in the winter 
time.” 

"Well, maybe you can,” said the doctor kindly, 
"and it is a great thing to be needed and to see 
some chance of improving your fellow man. You 
could, with economy, get yourself through college 
on this money.” ^ 

"And then, of course, you own the land our 


292 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


camp is built on,” remembered Helen. ‘‘That is 
a thousand dollars more.” 

“But I don’t want that,” exclaimed Gwen. “It 
has been so wonderful to have all of you here 
and so good to me.” 

“But, my dear child, the land belongs to you 
and this Abner Dean will have to be the one to 
suffer, not you or the Carters. If you will let me, 
I will consult a lawyer in Richmond and have 
him take hold of the matter. Don’t you find a 
deed of some sort among those papers?” 

There was no deed among the papers and, in 
fact, one never was found. The mystery was 
never solved how such an intelligent man as St. 
John Brownell evidently was had contented him- 
self with a mere receipt for the $i,ooo paid Abner 
Dean. He was perhaps suffering so with the 
nervous complaint which finally caused his death, 
that he had accepted the simplest method which 
presented itself to establish himself in a place 
where he hoped to find some peace. 

While Helen was confined to her couch with 
the spurious sprained ankle, she helped Gwen un- 


THE WALLET 


293 


ravel the story of her life from the letters found 
in the wonderful wallet. It was not such an 
extraordinary story, after all. St. John Brownell 
was of good family and education but evidently 
of small means, being the younger son of one of 
the many daughters of an impoverished earl. He 
had married young, come to America, and taken 
up teaching as a profession. His wife had died 
and then had come on him the strange malady 
that had caused him so much agony. Cities were 
hateful to him and he had decided that his small 
patrimony would serve best in some locality 
where the living was very inexpensive. Helen 
gathered from some of the letters that this patri- 
mony amounted to about $3,cxx). He seemed to 
have arrived in the mountains with that much 
money in cash. He had bought the one hun- 
dred acres of land on the side of the mountain, 
hoping to improve it, possibly by going into Albe- 
marle pippins. Gwen thought he had perhaps 
put his money into cash expecting to place it in a 
bank in Virginia; but as his malady gained on 
him all money dealings became very hateful and 


294 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


irksome to him, and he had evidently procrasti- 
nated until he had become in the habit of just 
carrying that roll of money around with him. 

Gwen could recall nothing of her mother, but 
she remembered being in a kindergarten in New 
York and of course remembered coming to Vir- 
ginia, and her father’s every characteristic was 
as fresh in her mind as though he had died only 
yesterday. The poor man had never been too 
miserable to be anything but gentle and loving 
to his little daughter, and he had spared no pains 
in teaching her, so that at nine years, her age 
when he had died, Gwen had been quite as well 
educated as many a child of twelve. 

''Aren’t you going to write to some of your 
father’s family, Gwen?” asked Helen, who had 
become so absorbed in the research that she felt 
like a full-fledged detective. 

"I think not,” and Gwen shook her head sadly. 
"He must have gone completely out of their lives. 
I can’t remember his getting any letters after 
we came to Virginia. Some day, maybe, I can 
make enough money to go to England, and then 


THE WALLET 


295 


I will hunt them up and peep at them through 
the shutters, and if they look kind and nice, Fll 
make myself known to them/’ 

'Terhaps you are right. They may be all kinds 
of pills and they might come over here and take 
you back with them whether you wanted to go 
or not. And you might have to live in stuffy 
chambers in London and never see the mountains 
any more.” 

'‘Dreadful! That would kill me!” 

And so Gwen went on living with kind Aunt 
Mandy, little by little cleaning up that good 
woman until she became reconciled to water and 
almost fond of it. 

George Wright consulted a lawyer friend who 
took Gwen’s affairs in hand and by skillful man- 
agement brought old Abner Dean to the realiza- 
tion that it would be best for him to execute a 
deed to the land bought by St. John Brownell, 
arranging it so Gwen would own the property 
without any string tied to it. He was forced to 
pay the money to Mr. Carter, and then the girls, 
having unwittingly built on Gwen’s land, rented 


296 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


it from her. Land had increased twofold in value 
since the Englishman had made his purchase, and 
the timber had grown so there was every indica- 
tion that by careful management Gwen would 
have a good deal more money to add to her bank 
account. 

Before Dr. Wright went back to Richmond, he 
told Helen he had killed the snake, if not the one 
who had taken a nip out of her tendon Achilles, 
at least one just as good or just as bad, which- 
ever way she chose to look at it. 

'Toor old snake!” exclaimed Helen. ‘'He 
shouldn’t have been punished for acting accord- 
ing to his nature. I am the one that should have 
been punished, because I hope I acted not accord- 
ing to my nature.” 

"Well, haven’t you been punished?” 

Helen said nothing. She felt in her heart that 
she had not been punished at all but had been 
favored, in that through that rattlesnake she had 
gained a real friend in the young doctor. 


CHAPTER XXL 


where: is bobby? 

'Where is Bobby, Helen?’’ asked Douglas, 
coming into the tent where Helen was having an 
enforced invalidism. She had promised Dr. 
Wright to be quiet until he returned to camp, 
which he was planning to do in a week. 

'T want to make you glad to see me and if my 
coming means you are no longer in durance vile 
I know I shall be welcome,” he had said when he 
told her good-by after a little more pulse taking. 

"We shall always be glad to have you,” she had 
replied impersonally. He did think she might 
have used a singular pronoun but he was grate- 
ful to her for any small scrap of politeness. As 
for Helen, it was difficult for her to get over a 
certain sharpness of manner she had up to this 
time carefully kept for the young physician. 
When she had fooled herself into thinking she 

hated him there had been times when she had for- 
297 


298 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


gotten to be rude in spite of her intentions and 
now, when she meant to be mild and gentle, some- 
times the old habit of studied disagreeableness 
got the better of her. That long week of en- 
forced idleness had chastened her spirit wonder- 
fully. She was so gentle that Douglas sometimes 
thought maybe she was ill. The rattler seemed 
to have extracted the poison from her system, 
rather than injected it. 

‘‘Only one more day she was thinking when 
Douglas came in. Dr. Wright was expected on 
the morrow and then she could be up and doing 
once more. There were absolutely no ill effects 
from the wound and that tiny excuse for a band- 
age had wholly disappeared. It seemed fool- 
ish to be nursing up herself like this, but then she 
had promised and Helen Carter never broke her 
word. 

“Bobby, you say? Why, he must have gone 
with Josh.” 

“No, Josh was to go a long way for some 
chickens and I thought Bobby would get too 
tired.” 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 


299 


‘^Maybe Lewis took him to the station with 
him/’ 

''Of course! I hear the goat chugging up the 
mountain now. Fll go see/’ 

But no Bobby ! 

The mountain goat was laden with packages 
and two previous boarders who could not wait 
for the week-end to return to camp. No one had 
seen Bobby for hours and hours it developed on 
investigation. 

"He done pestered the life out’n me all morn- 
in’,” declared Oscar, "an’ I done tol’ him go fin’ 
Susan and worry her some.” 

"Yes, an’ I sint him back to you.” 

"Well, he ain’t never come.” 

"He came to me for a story,” confessed Nan, 
"but I was so interested in my book I couldn’t 
stop. I’m so sorry.” 

"He wanted to go with Lil and me but we 
didn’t want him tagging on,” and Lucy looked 
ready to weep. 

"He came to me and wanted me to build a log 
cabin out of sticks but I had my accounts to go 


300 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


over/’ groaned Douglas. sent him to Helen 
but she hasn’t seen him.” 

^‘Well, he is around somewhere,” comforted 
Lewis. 

“Sure!” declared Bill. “All hands turn out 
and hunt.” 

The sisters all felt guilty consciences for not 
having looked after their little brother, all but 
Helen, who was the only one who had not seen 
him. 

“I was the only one who had time for him and 
I am the only one he didn’t come to,” she cried. 
“If I only hadn’t promised Dr. Wright to stay 
still until he got here! I know I could find 
Bobby.” 

“But, honey, there are lots of hunters and you 
must do what the doctor told you,” begged 
Douglas. 

“Oh, I’ll mind him all right — that is unless 
Bobby stays lost too long and then I’ll have to 
get up and break my word if I lose my immortal 
soul in the act.” 

Staying still while the hue and cry for her dear 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 301 

little brother was going on was about the hardest 
job Helen Carter ever undertook. She imagined 
all sorts of terrible things. Maybe gypsies had 
stolen him. Maybe a rattlesnake had bitten him 
and he was even now dying from it. Maybe he 
had fallen down the mountain side and had 
dashed his brains out on some boulder. Worse 
than anything he might be lost forever, wander- 
ing over the mountains trying to find his way 
home, crying and calling, scared almost to death, 
tired and hungry, dying finally of starvation and 
exposure. 

Taking Bill’s advice, all hands turned out to 
hunt for the lost boy. In five minutes Helen was 
the only person left in camp, even Miss Eliza- 
beth Somerville and the newly arrived boarders 
joining in the search. There were many paths 
leading from camp and up and down these the 
•crowd scattered. 

Dear little Bobby! No one thought him a nui- 
sance now. Nan and Gwen made their way to 
Aunt Mandy’s cabin, thinking perhaps he had 
gone there in search of Josh. Aunt Mandy came 


302 


THE CAETER GIRLS 


out with kindly words of discouragement and 
gruesome tales of a child her mother told her of 
who wandered off and never was found. 

'^That there Bobby looks like a angel anyhow. 
Children like him is hard to raise. We uns is 
been a tellin’ of Gwen and Josh that Bobby is too 
purty for a boy. He looks to we uns more like 
a gal angel.’’ Gwen tried to stop her but the old 
woman went on until Nan was almost in tears. 
If she had not been so distressed she would have 
found this amusing, but with Bobby gone for 
hours a sense of humor did not help much. 

‘'Oh, Gwen! Where can he be?” 

“Let’s keep on down this path for a while. He 
and Josh often go this way.” 

“If Josh would only come! I know he could 
find him.” 

“He will be found soon, I am sure. His little 
legs cannot carry him very far and I am sure he 
would not get out of the trails. He may be back 
at camp now. You turn back and let me follow 
this trail for a mile or so. You are tired, I 
know.” 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 


303 


“No, indeed, Fm not; if I were it would serve 
me right. If only I had stopped and told him a 
story! I am so selfish when I get steeped in a 
book. What will Mother say if Bobby is lost?'’ 

“Oh, but I am sure we will find him." 

The girls wandered on, stopping every now and 
then to call to the lost child. Sometimes they 
would be answered by an echo and then would 
stop and listen and call again. 

Douglas got in the car with Lewis, who 
whisked her down the mountain side to the sta- 
tion. 

“Maybe he has carried out his threat of run- 
ning away. He is always saying he is going back 
to Richmond when he gets tired of the camp, 
which he does occasionally when he has nothing 
to occupy him. If I had only stopped adding up 
expenses and built the log cabin for him ! I have 
neglected him, I am sure — and what will Father 
and Mother say? I wish I had let him go 
with Josh. He always takes such good care of 
him." 

“We are going to find him, Douglas, I feel 


304 THE CARTEK GIRLS 

sure. Why, the little shaver could not walk very 
far.’’ 

He was not at the station and no one had seen 
him. Old Abner Dean came out of his store and 
actually seemed to feel some concern for the boy. 
He was a hard old man but not hard enough to 
resist the charm of Bobby’s eyes. 

''He could not have come to the station without 
some one seeing him, and now I am going to take 
you home. He may be found by this time and if 
he is not I’ll start out again. There is no use in 
your going,” said Lewis, feeling very sorry for 
the distracted sister and very uneasy himself in 
spite of his repeated assurances to Douglas that 
the little shaver was all right wherever he might 
be. 

"First let’s go down this road a little way. He 
might have turned off before he got to the station. 
He knows that this is the road Josephus and Josh 
took this morning.” 

"All right! Anywhere that there is a chance 
of finding him !” 

Lucy and Lil with Frank and his friend 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 305 

Skeeter, went over the mountain. Lucy and Lil 
were feeling very much cut up that they had re- 
fused to let poor little Bobby tag along earlier 
in the day. 

should have taken him with me” wailed 
Lucy. ''Maybe I can never take care of him 
again. S’pose wild cats get him.’’ 

"But they wouldn’t attack in daylight,” de- 
clared Frank. 

"But we might not find him before dark and 
wolves and snakes and wild cats and all kinds of 
things might get him. I promised Mother I’d be 
good to him, too.” Lucy was sniffing dismally 
and Lil joined her friend in her demonstration of 
woe. 

They came to the reservoir where Bobby loved 
to play and was not allowed to come alone. It 
was not deep but then a little child does not need 
much water to drown in. 

"It is so clear that if he is in the bottom we 
can see him, that’s one comfort,” suggested 
Skeeter, but the rest of them could not extract 
much joy from the fact. 


306 


THE CAETEE GIELS 


''I am scared to look in exclaimed Lucy, hid- 
ing her eyes. 

'^Nothing in there but a bullfrog,’' reassured 
Frank, so they left the reservoir and climbed on 
up the mountain. 

Susan and Oscar took the path around the 
mountain. The two devoted servants were so 
deeply concerned about their darling Bobby, very 
precious now that he was lost, that they felt there 
was no way to express their concern but by quar- 
reling with each other. 

‘‘Whin I sint him to you, why’n you keep 
keer er him ?” grumbled Oscar. 

“Wherefore you didn’t keep keer er him yo’ 
se’f?” 

“I ain’t no nuss !” 

“Me neither! I done hi’ed out fur a house- 
maid. I is demeanin’ of my rightful oaths to be 
adoin’ what I is. If the haid of our sassiety 
should git wind of all the occupations I is a occu- 
pying I ain’t got a doubt she would read me out in 
meetin’.” 

“Well, nobody ain’t a goin’ to blow ’bout what 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 


307 


wuck you does but yo’se’f. I can’t see but what 
you keeps to yo’ vows well enough. If lookin’ af- 
ter chillums aint ’ooman’s wuck I lak to know 
what is.” 

Every now and then they stopped their wran- 
gling to shout for the lost boy. 

''Bo — oob — by! You, Bo — oob — by! I got 
some ca — an — dy fur yer,” called Susan. 

" ’Andyfuryer !” came back from the next 
mountain. 

"Thar he is!” declared Oscar. 

"Thar he is much! That there is what Miss 
Nan calls a ego. It’s some kind er a beast I 
reckon what mocks folks. Sounds lak hants ter 
me. I done dream of trouble last night anyhow. 
I dream I was a gittin’ married — ” 

"That would sho’ be trouble to the groom,” 
chuckled Oscar. 

"My dream book says that dreamin’ of mar- 
riage is sho sign er death. I reckon our little 
Bobby is dead by this time. Out here cold and 
starved in the mountings.” 

"Well, he done et a good breakfast this morn- 


308 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


in^ and ain’t starved yit as ’tain’t time ter dish up 
dinner yit. An’ if he is cold I’d lak ter know whar 
he done foun’ a cool spot. I sho is a sweatin’ 
myse’f.” 

‘'Go ’long, you ole nigger! You ain’t got no 
feelin’.” 

‘T’s got as much feelin’ as you is but I’s got 
enough ter worry ’bout without makin’ up 
troubles. I want ter find that there Bobby an’ I 
feel turrible bad ’bout his a gittin’ lost but I ain’t 
agoin’ ter trouble my haid about his bein’ cold and 
hongry whin the sun is a shinin’ down on my back 
as hot as a mustard plarster an’ I done see the 
boy put away two full batches of wafiies with 
enough scrambled eggs to feed a whole fambly. 
His appletite done pick up wonderful sense we 
been a campin’ out.” 

Miss Elizabeth Somerville had to help in the 
search, too, although Bill Tinsley tried to per- 
suade her that he and Tillie Wingo could do her 
part and she had better go back to the pavilion, 
but go she would down the rocky path. 

“ ‘Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 309 

but the rod of correction shall drive it far from 
him/ she declaimed grimly. ‘Hf I had my way 
I should give that child a good whipping when he 
is found. He knows perfectly well he should not 
have gone off without asking.’’ 

The search kept up for more than an hour and 
still no sign of little Bobby. Even the most cheer- 
fully sanguine of the campers began to feel du- 
bious. Helen lay on her cot in an agony of sus- 
pense. The search party had none of them re- 
turned. She began to fear that the worst might 
have happened to her beloved little brother. If 
she could only get up and help! She regretted 
the promise she had made Dr. Wright. How 
could she stay still until the next day ? She knew 
she could find Bobby if any one could. Did he not 
love her best of all the sisters? How strange 
that he had not come to her when Douglas sent 
him! She would have told him stories and 
amused him. 

‘'Maybe he did come while I was taking that 
little nap,” she thought. “It was only for a mo- 
ment that I dozed off and usually he is quick 


310 


THE CARTEE GIRLS 


enough to awaken any one who is sleeping/’ The 
truth of the matter was that Bobby was loath to 
have anybody sleep. He was famous as a waker. 

^‘There is a car ! I hear it coming up the moun- 
tain. I do hope it is Douglas and she has got 
him.” 

She waited what seemed hours but was in 
reality but a minute. 

‘^Douglas!” she called. ‘%ewis! Somebody! 
Have you found him ?” Her voice rang out very 
loud in the empty camp. 

‘^May I come in?” Dr. Wright’s voice just 
outside her tent. 

"‘Oh, Dr. Wright! Bobby is lost! May I get 
up and help hunt? I’m so glad you have come!” 

‘‘So am I. I was called to Charlottesville in 
consultation and came on up here for a visit. 
Tell me about Bobby.” 

“He’s been lost for hours and hours. Every- 
body is out hunting and I promised I’d stay here 
until you came, but oh, Dr. Wright, it has been 
hard to keep my word.” 

“You poor little girl! But you mustn’t worry, 


WHEEE IS BOBBY? 


311 


Bobby can take care of himself anywhere he hap- 
pens to be/’ 

‘‘You bet I can!” came from under Helen’s cot 
and then a tousled sleepy little figure followed 
the voice. 

‘'Oh, Bobby, Bobby I” cried Helen, hugging the 
little wretch close in her arms. “Didn’t you know 
we were nearly scared to death about you ?” 

“Nope ! How’s I to know ? I drap off to sleep, 
I reckon. I was so tired er gettin’ driv from one 
to the tother all mornin’ that I got so sleepy I 
couldn’t stay awake. When I got driv to you by 
Douglas and found you snoozin’ I jes’ crawled in 
under your bed and must a snoozed some my- 
self.” 

“To think of his being right here all the time! 
Please go tell the rest he is found. Tell them I 
found him.” 

“Yes, tell ’em Helen is wuth mor’n all of them 
put together. She kin do more findin’ of things 
lyin’ up in the bed than all the crowd can a huntin’ 
all over the mountain.” 

Bobby soon became the center of attraction. 


312 


THE CAETER GIELS 


Everybody had to give him a hug and everybody 
was sorry they had ''driv'' him off. Douglas 
promised him an Indian outfit ; Nan promised to 
tell him all the stories she knew ; Lucy invited him 
to tag along with her whenever he wanted to; 
Lewis Somerville gave him a new knife if he 
promised never to use it unless Josh was with 
him to pick up the pieces he cut off himself; 
Susan immediately put on some molasses to cook 
for an always welcome candy pulling ; Oscar gave 
him an especial invitation to a chicken picking 
he was to hold that afternoon. 

Helen was allowed to get up by the cautious 
young doctor since the snake bite was entirely 
gone. Her manner to him was so gentle he could 
not help feeling that he himself, as well as a 
physician who was releasing her, was welcome to 
the camp. 

During this visit Dr. Wright found much food 
for thought — serious and otherwise. As he 
watched the Carter girls, happily active in their 
daily tasks, bravely puzzling over their problems 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 


313 


in economy, unselfishly entertaining their week- 
end guests, he contrasted their life on the side of 
the mountain in Albemarle with the sheltered 
existence they had known — and marveled and re- 
joiced. 

The summer was doing wonderful things for 
all the members of the camping party. Miss 
Somerville had seen a sunrise and had waxed en- 
thusiastic over it. Susan had learned to sleep 
with her windows open and to realize that some 
of her dreams were indicative of what had hap- 
pened rather than what was going to happen. 
Namely! a fearful dream she had had of fresh 
meat did not mean sure death, as the dream book 
said, but that she had eaten too much beefsteak 
the night before. Oscar had learned that there 
was a lot of good in po’ whites when once they 
began to wash. Josh, in turn, had learned the 
value of cold water on character as well as hide. 

Lewis Somerville and his chum. Bill, had 
learned the power of honest toil to assuage the 
mental anguish they had had to contend with be- 
cause of their interrupted careers. They were 


314 


THE CARTER GIRLS 


planning for the future instead of looking back 
and regretting the past. Bobby was learning 
more than any of the party. He had learned 
how to find a bee tree and where the sparrow 
hawk nests; he had learned how to skin up any 
tree he could get his arms around and how to 
slide down without barking his shins; he had 
learned how to scrooch up his toes when the path 
was stony and not hurt his feet walking in briars. 
Josh was his tutor and had even taught him when 
to say we uns and you allses. Josephus had 
learned where to go for lump sugar, and when- 
ever Helen appeared, the old mule limped after 
her, putting his head on one side and singing 
like a canary bird; at least, that was what Nan 
said he did. 

So even Josephus could be numbered among 
those who had benefited by the healthful, unself- 
ish, out-of-door life on the mountain side. Lucy, 
perhaps, of all the Carter girls, had changed the 
least under the new influences. Her attitude 
toward the world in general and Helen in particu- 
lar remained about the same: she was adoring 


WHERE IS BOBBY? 315 

and belligerent, imitative and rebellious, as vari- 
able as a weather vane in March. 

The fact that Helen had been bitten by a snake 
was carefully kept from Lucy for fear she would 
go do likewise. She tried very hard to stay in 
bed one day with a would-be sprained ankle, but 
the delights of the mountains were too alluring. 
She hobbled out of bed before the day was over 
and by evening was fox trotting with Skeeter, 
who, by the way, had answered Frank Maury’s 
letter in person by return mail. 

But if Lucy took the business end of the sum- 
mer venture lightly, Douglas, Helen and Nan 
shouldered its responsibilities seriously and glor- 
ied in its success. Their enthusiasm did not wane 
nor did their determination falter: their father 
should not be burdened by debts on his home- 
coming. 

How they clung to their purpose and how they 
met the remaining experiences of the summer, 
their friends may discover, if they will, in ‘'The 
Carter Girls’ Week-End Camp.” 


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